Know the signs of heat stroke and exhaustion

Heat can be deadly.As summer temperatures climb — and as climate change contributes to more 100-degree days each year — heat illnesses become a more serious risk, particularly for young children, older adults, outdoor workers, athletes and people with chronic conditions.“On any day with extreme heat, emergency rooms in Los Angeles see an additional 1,500 patients,” said Dr. David Eisenman, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and co-leader of aresearch project to address extreme heat in Los Angeles.“We estimate that an additional 16 people die on a single day of heat in Los Angeles County,” Eisenman said. “There are an extra 40 deaths a day by the fifth day of heat.”UCLADr. David EisenmanThese heat illnesses disproportionately affect Black and Latino members of the community living in historically redlined neighborhoods, he said, where housing units have less insulation, often lack air-conditioning and there are fewer trees to provide shade.“Part of the lack of investment was the lack of trees and shade,” Eisenman said. “These are communities that are several degrees hotter all the time. And on an extreme heat day, they can be 10 or 20 degrees hotter.”Los Angeles recently named its first chief heat officer, Marta Segura, to oversee the city ’s systemic and acute response to extreme heat events.Eisenman said heat is the type of hazard that requires “multiple sectors of government and society to mitigate it as well as help us ad...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news