By Aaron Allen, The Seattle Medium
Once again, the Puget Sound region is forecasted to experience high temperatures this summer, and officials with Public Health – Seattle & King County are urging individuals who are at higher risk for health problems in the heat to take precautions to stay cool. While daytime temperatures may be lower than what King County experienced last summer, temperatures are forecasted to remain higher than normal overnight, which makes people more vulnerable to health problems from the heat.
Extreme heat, coupled with brush and forest fires, can produce poor air quality, which can be deadly for some and can kill more people than any other weather event.
“Our main message across the board is that extreme heat events are occurring across our region more regularly each summer, and there is actually a lot we can do to reduce their impact on our health,” says JJ Edge, Public Health’s Emergency Preparedness Planner. “We do want folks to know that there are proactive steps people can take when they do hear that extreme heat is in the forecast, and that those steps actually do need to be taken.”
“We can’t treat these events like business as usual,” adds Edge. “We really do need to make those changes and adaptations to prevent those impacts on our health.”
According to Edge, climate change is attributing to the extreme heat events and poor air quality across the country as well as in our region that are becoming more frequent, more severe, and lasting longer. These extreme heat events make it even more important for people to properly prepare to protect themselves and their loved ones.
“We use the National Weather Service’s Heat Risk Values, and we use them to see when extreme heat is forecasted,” says Edge. “The nice thing about heat risk values is that they take into account local climatology. This is important because extreme heat events, temperature-wise, might look very different than extreme heat events in, say, Arizona, for example.”
Extreme weather like heatwaves can cause several different health-related problems if you do not take the necessary precautions to help prevent illness.
Symptoms of heat exhaustion include muscle cramps, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, and vomiting. If you see someone with signs of overheating, move the person to a cooler location, have them rest for a few minutes, and then slowly drink a cool beverage. Get medical attention for them immediately if they do not feel better.
Heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which can cause death or permanent disability unless treated immediately. Symptoms of heat stroke include:
• An extremely high body temperature (above 103°F)
• Red, hot, and dry skin
• Rapid, strong pulse
• Nausea, confusion, and unconsciousness
“The main thing is when people’s bodies can’t cool themselves down quickly enough, it can cause heat-related illnesses like heat exhaustion and heat stroke,” says Edge. “Heat really exacerbates other medical conditions or chronic illnesses. This is worrisome because that means it can impact some folks based on risk factors like age, if you’re on certain medication, or if you are exposed to heat for prolonged periods of time like sports activities or if you work outside or experience homelessness.”
Poor air quality, which contains high levels of pollutants, can also affect one’s health during extreme heat. Poor air quality often appears hazy and can be dangerous to your personal health and the environment.
“Generally, in the PNW, we do have pretty good air quality most of the time, which is one of the benefits of living in the northwest,” says Addison Houston, air quality expert for Public Health Seattle and King County. “But more recently, we started to see the impacts of wildfire smoke events where smoke is brought in from across the region, from just in our own backyard like we saw last year where we had fires in the Skykomish area with the Bolt Creek fire, but we can also get smoke impact from areas like Oregon, Northern California, and British Columbia. From those events, smoke can get transported into our region by air currents that generally give us good air quality.”
Extreme heat events can also cause other pollutants, such as industrial emissions, that can be inversely trapped by heat, but the concern of many health officials revolves around pollutants caused by wildfires.
According to health officials, high-risk groups, groups at risk of serious illness due to extreme heat and poor air quality, include children under 18, the elderly, people with chronic heart or lung disease, pregnant people, and people with diabetes. Adults who are active outdoors, including outdoor workers and avid exercisers, can be considered at higher risk as well because of prolonged exposure to bad air. All these groups are most likely to be the first to experience the effects of ozone and particle pollution, so they need to take extra steps to protect themselves from harm.
Air pollution can threaten anyone’s health, so stay up to date on the AQI in your area. AQI forecasts and real-time information can be found on the EPA’s AirNow Website. On days when the air quality is orange, red, purple, or maroon:
• Reduce the time you spend outdoors to under 30 minutes when AQI is high. Also, reduce the intensity of outdoor activity. According to the EPA, the chances of being affected by unhealthy levels of air pollution increase the longer a person is active outdoors and the more strenuous the activity.
• If you must go outdoors, consider wearing a mask. Unfortunately, not all masks are created equal when it comes to particle pollution, as a cloth or dust mask are not able to filter out the fine particles. However, well-fitted N95 or KN95 masks have better filtration capabilities and may be beneficial during high AQI days.
• Keep your air indoors healthy by keeping the windows and doors closed. Run the air conditioning on the recirculate setting, use a portable HEPA air cleaner, or, in severe circumstances, create a clean room.
