{"id":92133,"date":"2024-04-10T16:31:03","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T20:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=92133"},"modified":"2024-08-29T16:41:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-29T20:41:54","slug":"brock-expert-calls-for-broader-view-in-determining-extreme-heats-impact-on-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2024\/04\/brock-expert-calls-for-broader-view-in-determining-extreme-heats-impact-on-health\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock expert calls for broader view in determining extreme heat\u2019s impact on health"},"content":{"rendered":"

As scientists\u00a0express concern<\/a>\u00a0over the world\u2019s hottest March on record \u2014 the 10th record-breaking month in a row \u2014 a Brock University physiology expert is calling for a more holistic way of determining the health risks posed by extreme heat.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic health messages tend to be oversimplified to say things like, \u2018At this temperature, people are susceptible to heat stroke, and at this maximum temperature, people will die,\u2019\u201d says Professor of Kinesiology Toby M\u00fcndel. \u201cThe truth is much more nuanced when you take many other factors into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n

M\u00fcndel is part of an international research team that published\u00a0a review study in March<\/a>\u00a0challenging conventional methods of calculating the risk of illness and death from extreme high temperatures.<\/p>\n

The team recommends that expertise in human physiology be added to weather and epidemiological data, which is information on patterns of diseases in populations.<\/p>\n

One of the factors used to determine risks to human health is ambient temperature, the temperature of the air in a particular location measured by a thermometer.<\/p>\n

Experts use ambient measurements in their calculations across the board, but this does not take regional variations into consideration, says M\u00fcndel.<\/p>\n

\"A

Brock University Professor of Kinesiology Toby M\u00fcndel<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEach area has a normal ambient temperature, which could be higher than other locations; it depends on where you are in the world,\u201d he says. \u201cFor example, summers in St. Catharines are very different than summers in the Northwest Territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

People\u2019s bodies adjust to the \u201cnormal\u201d ambient temperature of where they live. If these rise, there may be an elevated risk of illness and death, but the fact that the regular ambient temperature is high compared to other places doesn\u2019t pose a risk in itself, he says.<\/p>\n

Another factor that should be included in risk assessments is behavioral thermoregulation, says M\u00fcndel. This refers to strategies humans and non-humans use to keep themselves cool or warm depending on their environments.<\/p>\n

Temperatures are typically collected at outdoor weather stations and airports.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t necessarily give you an indication of the temperatures people are actually exposed to,\u201d he says. \u201cIs it fair to say they experience heat stress during the day when many or most people are sitting nice and comfortably in air-conditioned offices or homes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, parts of the world lacking widespread air conditioning are at greater risk with rises in ambient temperatures, he says.<\/p>\n

Closely related to behavioural thermoregulation is the wider issue of social and economic inequities in a particular area, says M\u00fcndel. For example, homeless people who don\u2019t have access to cooling stations are disproportionately affected by heat-related risks.<\/p>\n

Similarly, locations containing high numbers of older adults or people dealing with heart disease and other pre-existing medical issues are also at greater risk, which should be factored into the overall equation, he says.<\/p>\n

M\u00fcndel urges these and other factors be integrated into the risk determinations before issuing public health warnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere should be caution against generalizing results from extreme heat to milder and more typical summer temperature ranges, especially without accounting for how humans behave and adapt,\u201d he says. \u201cOverestimating these risks leads to ineffective public health strategies and a misallocation of resources toward interventions with little real-world impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

M\u00fcndel recommends physiologists and others with expertise on the human body be included in teams that monitor and assess heat waves and health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As scientists\u00a0express concern\u00a0over the world\u2019s hottest March on record \u2014 the 10th record-breaking month in a row \u2014 a Brock University physiology expert is calling for a more holistic way of determining the health risks posed by extreme heat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":92135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,3319,1,5],"tags":[13436,13437,794,3079,6536,996,8093,7488,13435,13434,6258,13433,3200,3325,12851],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92133"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92139,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92133\/revisions\/92139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}