BC baking in the sun, experts worry about rising health risks of heat

In British Columbia, air conditioning is a hot commodity on the West Coast like never before. But as more people adapt to more frequent heatwaves, many people struggle with the summer heat simply by cooling off with fans and wet cloths.

According to Sarah Henderson, a public health expert at the BC Centers for Disease Control, extreme temperatures make experts uneasy. Because indoor temperatures can kill a person just like when the outside feels like 35 degrees to her.

Read more: BC 16 suspected fever-related cases between July 26th and August 3rd. There are reports of one death

dying from being too hot inside," she says.

Excessive heat can be deadly for those trapped indoors without air conditioning.

A restaurant employee who struggles in the kitchen where he easily reaches 35-40°C when it's hot outside. Elderly people living in homes without cooling systems. Also, homeless people living in tents are one of the groups that suffer from excessive indoor heat.

Like many restaurant workers, staff at the Chongqing restaurant in downtown Vancouver struggle to keep their cool when mercury spikes. It can get uncomfortably hot in the already crowded kitchen, tucked away behind a small, unassuming restaurant along one of the city's busiest shopping streets, He.

But manager Kelly Chow says his crew in his kitchen is his four-man power through his. When the outside temperature and humidity are above 30 degrees Celsius for him and the kitchen gets even hotter, he lights up the ice maker and puts buckets of ice around the kitchen to try and cool things down a bit.

READ MORE: Keep Calm: The Need to Adapt to New Climate Realities on Canada's West Coast

This year the first heat wave of the season took restaurants by surprise. Fierce temperatures hit the coast overnight, and when Zhou went out to buy fans to cool the kitchen, they were all sold out.

There is an AC in the dining area that brings a nice breeze into the kitchen, but not much (even with the AC, it doesn't cool the kitchen). But when it comes to heat, the cooking staff are "accustomed," Zhou said.

Yet exposure to excessive temperatures can quickly overwhelm the body. This includes the "comfort" of your home. Most homes in BC still don't have air conditioning.

The combination of hot, stuffy stagnant air and little release of cool air at night for the body to recover can be a particularly dangerous combination, according to experts. These conditions can lead to headaches, confusion, nausea, and fatigue. With prolonged exposure, excess heat can lead to seizures, organ failure, and even brain damage.

READ MORE: 500,000 Toronto residents sweltering in unair-conditioned apartments in summer heat

As Kinesiology Zachary Schrader, Indiana University Bloomington professor studies the effects of heat on the body.

In heat waves, the heart has to work harder to pump blood to the surface of the skin, he says. This process is he one of the body's natural defense mechanisms against heat. It moves warm blood from the core of the body to the surface of the skin, where it dissipates heat energy into the surrounding air.

"The amount of blood that the heart has to pump in a minute increases from 5 liters per minute to 10 liters to 15 liters to him," said Mr. Schlader. says. The movement of blood to the surface of the skin also means that other vital organs, especially the kidneys, are not receiving more blood than normal.

Under conditions of extreme heat, the kidneys go into overdrive to conserve water and prevent the body from becoming dehydrated. This, combined with the loss of blood flow to vital organs, means kidney failure is a permanent danger if the body overheats.

In his BC's Fraser Valley, east of Vancouver, summer highs are typically a few degrees higher than along the coast. If it's 26 degrees Celsius in Vancouver, it can easily hit 33 or 34 degrees Celsius in Abbotsford. This kind of heat is a big risk for the city's homeless population, who live in tents and trailers scattered around the city. Those tents get incredibly hot.

One of his communities, known as 'The Trails', is under heavy traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway. Last year, those who call the area home were hit by floods that completely washed away parts of the city. Now heat is an issue.

READ MORE: Canada's homeless population hit hardest by extreme heat

Chris C. he's 51 years old he's been living here for a little over a year he's a 1 year old homeless man. He says he lost his job setting up trade fairs when the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down and is now forced to make the most of what little is left.

Chris says he can easily hit 35 C in one of his tents he has set up. "I have two of his USB fans," he says, but there's no denying that they get unbearably hot during heat waves. "I open the window and it doesn't move. Now I can get up early."

Of course, we're not talking about AC.

Despite challenges such as heat, flooding, mental illness, drugs and occasional violence, There is a sense of community here and people look out for each other.

"We are homeless. We are not homeless," says Chris. Chris was lucky enough to find a place by the stream. He talks about his neighbors, furniture and even some kind of landscaping. ``I have some solar lights along the sidewalk. Fever alerts continue across Canada amid scorching temperatures and humidity

Whether in long-term care homes, restaurants, or homeless camps, health experts are The health dangers of high fever cannot be overemphasized. But they say it's hard to draw attention to the problem, at least on the West Coast, because the heat wave hasn't yet taken hold in the public consciousness.

Deborah Harford, Adaptation Specialist at Simon Fraser University, said:

According to her, floods are taken more seriously because they have a more visual effect.

"It's much harder to communicate the dangers of heat," she says. ``It doesn't have the same effect as looking at a building with water up to the windows on the second floor.''

``There is even reluctance to prepare (for a heat emergency). Because it looks like a heart,” she says.

But as heatwaves become the new summer reality on the West Coast, excessive heat is starting to hit the radar. “I think some areas of our system are really waking up to this,” she says.

READ MORE: As heatwaves heat up, experts warn against 'air conditioning society'

Last year there was a spike in claims for heat-related workplace injuries during the 'heat dome' emergency in British Columbia. WorkSafe BC In 2021 he received 115 claims. This represents a 180% increase from an average of 41 claims over the last three years.

Back in Abbotsford, Outreach Worker for GZ Ministry One Joseph Sikora has seen impact in communities that are not always represented in statistics.

"Behind all this addiction and homelessness is basically trauma: childhood trauma, adolescent trauma."

Sikora regularly Visit camps and hand out "whatever we have" - ​​water bottles, fruit, popsicles. Delivery is filled with gratitude and relief.

Five years ago, Sikora was forced to live on the streets, drowning hard in his drugs and barely surviving. ``It was hell. I know first hand.

Looking at some of the camps he delivers water to, full of trailers and old campers, which he calls "the ground his zero," he realizes that some people can't handle the heat. I wonder how I am getting over it.

Food and water.

"I don't know how they survive."