Hot weather is known as the “silent killer” by experts. And it could be deadlier in 2024 than ever before.
A dangerous heat wave is headed to Massachusetts Tuesday with “near to record breaking high temperatures” possible, according to National Weather Service forecasters.
Experts are warning about the dangerous of the heat.
“There’s just very low awareness that heat kills. It’s the silent killer,” University of Washington public health scientist Kristie Ebi, who helped write a United Nations special report on extreme weather, told PBS.
Ebi said in the last few years, the heat “seems like it’s coming faster. It seems like it’s more severe than we expected.”
In 2023, more than 2,300 people died in the U.S. due to excessive heat, according to their death certificates, PBS reported. It was the highest number in 45 years, the Associated Press reported.
But heat is already worse in 2024 across the U.S., leading experts to believe the numbers could be higher this year.
Plus, those numbers might be higher than originally thought.
Experts told the AP that we don’t know how many people die in the U.S. each year because of a lack of unified reporting.
Utah and Massachusetts are among states that do not track heat-related deaths where exposure to extreme heat was a secondary factor.
“States like Massachusetts don’t track heat deaths because they don’t have to and because no one has really fought for them to do it,” Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University who studies how cities respond to climate change, told WBUR. “And the reason is that historically we’ve largely failed to recognize how dangerous the heat can be.”
But we know that hundreds of people in Massachusetts have to go to the hospital each year because of heat-related illnesses, according to the news outlet.
Many experts say a standard decades-old method known as counting excess deaths could better show how extreme heat harms people.
“You want to look at the number of people who would not have died during that time period and get a true sense of the magnitude of the impact,” Ebi said, including people who would not have suffered a fatal heart attack or renal failure without the heat.
During extreme heat, it’s important to know the symptoms of both heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
According to Mayo Clinic, heat exhaustion is a “condition whose symptoms may include heavy sweating and a rapid pulse, a result of your body overheating. It’s one of three heat-related syndromes, with heat cramps being the mildest and heatstroke being the most severe.”
The organization states that people should see a doctor if symptoms “don’t improve within one hour.”
“If you are with someone showing signs of heat exhaustion, seek immediate medical attention if he or she becomes confused or agitated, loses consciousness or is unable to drink,” the website states. “You will need immediate cooling and urgent medical attention if your core body temperature (measured by a rectal thermometer) reaches 104°F (40°C) or higher.”
Symptoms of heat exhaustion:
- Cool, moist skin with goose bumps when in the heat
- Heavy sweating
- Faintness
- Dizziness
- Fatigue
- Weak, rapid pulse
- Low blood pressure upon standing
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea
- Headache
Heat stroke, however, is the “most serious heat-related illness,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It occurs when the body can no longer control its temperature: the body’s temperature rises rapidly, the sweating mechanism fails, and the body is unable to cool down,” the website states. “When heat stroke occurs, the body temperature can rise to 106°F or higher within 10 to 15 minutes. Heat stroke can cause permanent disability or death if the person does not receive emergency treatment.”
Symptoms of heat stroke:
- Confusion, altered mental status, slurred speech
- Loss of consciousness
- Hot, dry skin or profuse sweating
- Seizures
- Very high body temperature
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.
