Extreme heat poses as a threat to society

What is Extreme Heat?

One of the leading threats to public health is climate change, which leads to extreme temperatures such as extreme heat, especially in Texas. Extreme heat is when temperatures are hotter/humid than the average temperatures (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017). When extreme heat lasts longer than expected, this becomes heat waves. Extreme heat does impact health in many ways, as it can lead to heat-related illnesses which can be fatal if not treated correctly. Heat-related illnesses happen when the body isn’t able to cool itself fast enough, which leads to the individual's body temperature rising faster than normal. This can lead to heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat strokes. There are many factors that put one at risk of developing heat-related illnesses such as heart disease, obesity, high levels of humidity, fever, dehydration, mental illness, prescription drug use, poor circulation, sunburn, and alcohol use (CDC, 2017). Anyone can be affected by extreme heat but it can disproportionately affect more of the population of those who are athletes, low-income households, and older adults. infants and children, outdoor workers, and those who have chronic medical conditions (CDC, 2022). On average, around 702 heat-related deaths occurs each year (CDC, n.d.). Not only does extreme heat have an effect on human health but it also poses a threat to agriculture, droughts, wildfires, and higher demand in using energy. That’s why it’s important to address extreme heat and heat-related illnesses to lessen the impact.

The Prevalence of Extreme Heat

When looking at Heat and Heat-related illness (HRI) morality in 2019 in the United States was an average of 714 with 95 in Texas.

Accessed From: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/DataExplorer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

When looking at the annual number of extreme heat days for the year 2019 from May to September, Dallas County had a count of 116 extreme heat days. With a total of 3108 annual extreme heat days for that year.

Accessed From: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/DataExplorer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

When looking at Heat-related illness (HRI); this shows the latest reported (July 9th, 2022 week) of types of HRI with a total of 98 for the year so far. As well as the daily temperature compared to the HRI reports for Dallas County.

Accessed from: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/heat-related-report.php (ESSENCE, 2022; Dallas County Medical Examiner, n.d.) 

Determinants of Extreme Heat

When it comes to the determinants that cause extreme heat, there is a link between fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, ozone, and temperatures. When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, it involves trapping heat which leads to a rise in temperature. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions include human activities such as burning fossil fuels which then are used for everyday heat, transportation, agriculture, and electricity (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2022). Greenhouse gas emissions are growing at a fast pace, with a record of 52.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2019, and 38.0 gigatons of fossil carbon dioxide (Zhao et al., 2022; Pyrce et al., 2018). With burning fossil fuels daily, there is going to be an increase of carbon dioxide build up into the atmosphere and ozone which leads to a higher earth temperature thus leading to extreme heat.

Relationships with climate change and global warming

There is a correlation when it comes to extreme heat, climate change, and global warming. Global warming is looking at the heating of the Earth’s surface throughout time which happens due to fossil fuel burning which increases the greenhouse gas emissions that are trapped in the atmosphere (NASA, 2022). Increasing the heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels increases the temperature of the earth's surfaces which further leads to extreme heat which then goes into heat waves. The heat waves and combing global warming, actually exacerbate the heat hazards of the high temperatures, having an increase in humidity, increased variability, and increase in more extreme temperatures (Howe et al., 2019; Mann et al., 2017; Mora et al., 2017; Dunne et al., 2013). Not only that but with the exacerbation of heat hazards, it will also spread to areas that have little to no threats dealing with heat (Howe et al., 2019; Mora et al., 2017; IPCC, 2014).  As for climate change, that is looking at the patterns of weather from different climates in a local, regional, and global range (NASA, 2022). As climate changes constantly, it's starting to warm up the temperatures which lead to an increase in carbon dioxide along with heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

What does heat index mean? And what do you do to beat the heat and reduce the chance of getting HRI?

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Heat & Health tracker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/heatTracker/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, June 19). About extreme heat. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/heat_guide.html 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 17). Extreme heat. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/index.html 

Dunne, J. P., Stouffer, R. J., & John, J. G. (2013, February 24). Reductions in labour capacity from heat stress under climate warming. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1827 

Environmental Protection Agency. (2022, April 14). Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. EPA. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions 

Howe, P. D., Marlon, J. R., Wang, X., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Public perceptions of the health risks of extreme heat across US states, counties, and neighborhoods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(14), 6743-6748. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813145116

IPCC. (2014). Full report part A: Global and sectoral aspects. IPCC. Retrieved July 23, 2022, from https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/full-report-global-aspects/ 

Mann, M. E., Rahmstorf, S., Kornhuber, K., Steinman, B. A., Miller, S. K., & Coumou, D. (2017, March 27). Influence of anthropogenic climate change on planetary wave resonance and extreme weather events. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45242?iu=&iap=false&exception=true&cust_params=#citeas 

Mora, C., Dousset, B., Caldwell, I. R., Powell, F. E., Geronimo, R. C., Bielecki, C. R., Counsell, C. W. W., Dietrich, B. S., Johnston, E. T., Louis, L. V., Lucas, M. P., McKenzie, M. M., Shea, A. G., Tseng, H., Giambelluca, T. W., Leon, L. R., Hawkins, E., & Trauernicht, C. (2017, June 19). Global risk of deadly heat. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3322?dom=pri#citeas 

NASA. (2022, July 18). Overview: Weather, Global Warming and climate change. NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/global-warming-vs-climate-change/ 

Pryce, J., Richardson, M., & Lengeler, C. (2018). Insecticide‐treated nets for preventing malaria. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (11).

Zhao, Q., Yu, P., Mahendran, R., Huang, W., Gao, Y., Yang, Z., Ye, T., Wen, B., Wu, Y., Li, S., & Guo, Y. (2022, May 7). Global climate change and human health: Pathways and possible solutions. Eco-Environment & Health. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772985022000072#bib131