ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
It's about to get really, really hot. The first significant heat wave of the season is expected to hit much of the U.S. this weekend. We're talking temperatures well above 90 and even hitting 100 degrees across the East Coast and into the Midwest. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned that warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected throughout the summer, and experts warn that brutal heat that comes on quickly can be very dangerous for vulnerable populations. To talk more about what to watch for, we've called up Patricia Fabian. She's an associate professor of environmental health at Boston University. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
PATRICIA FABIAN: Hello. Thank you for the invitation.
LIMBONG: So millions of Americans are under heat advisories and warnings right now. Can you translate for us? What does that mean? And what steps should people take to protect themselves?
FABIAN: When the temperatures get really hot, people's capacity to respond to heat isn't always great. And so what it means is we will expect to see more emergency department visits because of heat stress. We'll expect to see probably an increase in deaths. And the reason that we worry about it more right now in the beginning is because people haven't adapted yet to heat in the same way as they do later in the summer, and so we pay attention a lot to kind of that first heat wave.
LIMBONG: When you say people haven't adapted, do you mean just, like, physically, their bodies haven't adapted, or they just haven't taken the necessary steps?
FABIAN: You know, it's probably a combination. So one is that people haven't prepared. Maybe their air conditioners aren't put in, to - like, for window air conditioners. They haven't thought about hydration and carrying water bottles. So that's part of it, but the other big part of it is really more the physiological response, that as time goes by and we're exposed to hot weather, our body learns how to sweat and cool down. So it's a combination of things, both your body getting used to the heat and knowing what to do and then kind of that adaptive behavior that we pick up over the summer.
LIMBONG: So this heat wave is also bringing a lot of humidity with it. How does the combination of high heat and high humidity affect people's health?
FABIAN: Basically, humidity makes it feel hotter. Physiologically, what's happening is that when it's humid, the way that your body cools off is by evapotranspiration, which means that it's - you're sweating, and then as that sweat evaporates from your body, that cools down your body. When you have really high humidity, what happens is that the sweat doesn't evaporate, essentially.
LIMBONG: You're located in Boston, and like a lot of the Northeast, extreme heat waves are relatively, like, a newer phenomenon there. So what are some, like, longer-term ways people can stay cool in environments like that?
FABIAN: That's a great question. So as you said, in Boston, we've been used to thinking about cold and blizzards and snow days and not heat days. And I think for that reason also, all of the buildings have been built up over time to retain heat and not to be cool. Long-term, I think that there's a lot of things we can do to the built environment - so the houses where we live, the buildings where we work, the spaces where we play. Some of the things are things like ceiling fans and shades that are pretty low cost, simple to do, even things like exhaust fans in the kitchen to remove heat as you're cooking.
Bigger picture, there's a lot of things we can do to actually the building structures, so things like adding insulation or participating in weatherization programs, things like heat pumps. There's a lot of programs now for replacing old furnaces for a heat pump that's energy efficient but also provides cooling and heating, not just heating. And then at a neighborhood scale, all the things that cities are doing - so things like planting trees, getting rid of impervious surfaces, painting roofs white.
LIMBONG: So let's actually say you live in an old house that is built to retain heat, like you said. What are some - besides, you know, installing a super-expensive HVAC system or something - what are some things you can do to keep your house cool?
FABIAN: I grew up in Mexico, and things like shading, taking a break in the middle of the day and working early morning, working in the evening - planting trees, you know, against a wall where the sun hits a lot during the day. So here I think it's about kind of getting people to know that. And so low-cost things are things like fans, creating crosswinds, using lighter paint colors as you're trying to replace your roof, for example.
LIMBONG: So last summer was the hottest ever on record, and the World Health Organization says that hotter summer seasons are intensifying because of human-caused climate change. If extreme heat is now to be expected, how should people adapt?
FABIAN: So one thing to do is to actually have a cooling kit available. And in the same way that when you know that a blizzard is coming or a hurricane is coming and you stock up on water, stock up on food, etc., you could also think about heat is coming. So what can you do? You can have cooling packs. You can have drinks with electrolytes. You can make sure that you have access to water. You can make sure you know where the cooling centers are. If you're going to be out and about during the day, that might be identifying even a grocery store or a library or a pop-up shade or a park with a misting station.
So kind of at the beginning of the summer, say, OK, I need to make a heat plan for myself so that I can cool down when it's hot. That then would help not just keep you safe but probably help keep someone else safe that you'll probably run into during the day that may not have thought of heat as a risk.
LIMBONG: That's Patricia Fabian. She's an associate professor at Boston University. Thank you so much.
FABIAN: Thank you for the invitation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
