Keep Your Cool in Hot Weather!

"Learn about heat-related illness and how to stay cool and safe in hot weather.

High temperatures kill hundreds of people every year. Heat-related deaths and illness are preventable, yet more than 600 people die from extreme heat every year.

Take measures to stay cool, remain hydrated, and keep informed. Getting too hot can make you sick. You can become ill from the heat if your body can’t compensate for it and properly cool you off. The main things affecting your body’s ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather are:

• High humidity. When the humidity is high, sweat won’t evaporate as quickly. This keeps your body from releasing heat as fast as it may need to.
• Personal factors. Age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use all can play a role in whether a person can cool off enough in very hot weather.

Those who are at highest risk include people 65 and older, children younger than two, and people with chronic diseases or mental illness.

Closely monitor people who depend on you for their care and ask these questions:

• Are they drinking enough water?
• Do they have access to air conditioning?
• Do they need help keeping cool?.."
  Extrme heat

CDC’s Tracking Network in Action: Extreme Heat

"Extremely hot weather can make you sick. Stay cool and hydrated to protect yourself. The Tracking Network provides data and tools that you can use to see how extreme heat may affect your health.

CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network (Tracking Network) is a dynamic surveillance system that provides information and data about environmental hazards and the health problems that may be related to them. It presents what we know about where environmental hazards exist, where exposures happen, and how targeted action can protect health, reduce illness, and save lives. The Tracking Network is a unique resource that brings together environmental and health information that cannot be found, or is hard to find, anywhere else.

Extreme Heat and Your Health

Extreme heat events, or heat waves, are one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the United States. When temperatures rise in the summer, extremely hot weather can cause sickness or even death. Heat stress is heat-related illness caused by your body’s inability to cool down properly. The body normally cools itself by sweating. But under some conditions, sweating just isn’t enough. In such cases, a person’s body temperature rises rapidly. Very high body temperatures may damage the brain or other vital organs.

Extremely hot weather can make you sick. Stay cool and hydrated to protect yourself..."
Extreme heat

Keep Your Cool in Hot Weather!

"Learn about heat-related illness and how to stay cool and safe in hot weather.

Now is the time to prepare for the high temperatures that kill hundreds of people every year. Extreme heat causes more than 600 deaths each year. Heat-related deaths and illness are preventable, yet many people still die from extreme heat every year.

Take measures to stay cool, remain hydrated, and keep informed. Getting too hot can make you sick. You can become ill from the heat if your body can’t compensate for it and properly cool you off. The main things affecting your body’s ability to cool itself during extremely hot weather are:

• High humidity. When the humidity is high, sweat won’t evaporate as quickly, which keeps your body from releasing heat as fast as it may need to.
• Personal factors. Age, obesity, fever, dehydration, heart disease, mental illness, poor circulation, sunburn, and prescription drug and alcohol use can play a role in whether a person can cool off enough in very hot weather.

Those who are at highest risk include people 65 and older, children younger than two, and people with chronic diseases or mental illness.  Closely monitor people who depend on you for their care and ask these questions:

• Are they drinking enough water?
• Do they have access to air conditioning?
• Do they need help keeping cool?.."
  Extreme weather

Heat-related Illness

"Heat stress can affect many outdoor and indoor workers. To prevent heat-related illnesses and injuries on the job, an in-depth heat-related illness prevention program should be developed and utilized.

Occupational exposure to heat can result in illnesses, injuries, reduced productivity, and death. In 2016, NIOSH published the Criteria for a Recommended Standard: Occupational Exposure to Heat and Hot Environments, which provides detailed guidance for preventing heat-related illnesses and injuries. Some of this guidance has been briefly summarized below, and should be considered when developing a heat-related illness prevention program..."
Heat illnes

Don't Let the Heat Beat You

Tips for the Madison/Dane County Health Department:

"Every year at this time there are numerous news stories about the heat, offering solid advice on what to do when the weather gets very hot and humid. We hear these stories so often that many of us stop paying attention. But during the next week there will be five or six days when the temperature will be over 90 degrees so there are a few very important basics beyond the usual advice about staying cool and hydrated.

Here are three simple points to keep in mind.

1. Check in on elderly and disabled neighbors. Extreme heat can be very dangerous for them, and some might be shy or unable to ask for help. So please risk being a nosy neighbor. It will make this situation a lot less risky for them.

2. Don't push yourself or your kids too far with outdoor physical activities. Heatstroke can sneak up on you quickly, and it often requires a trip to the emergency room.

3. Do not leave your kids or your pets in a car, even with the motor and air conditioner running. A stalled engine will produce dangerously high temperatures very quickly, putting a child or pet at risk for brain damage and death. On hot or warm days, it's best to leave your pet at home, and to always take your child with you - no matter how short you think your errand will be..."