Killer Heat Took Lives of 350 In NYC Last Year

Baby it’s hot outside. And that’s not always a good thing.

Last summer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracked death certificates for more than 2,300 Americans, 350 of them right here in New York, which listed the cause of death as excessive heat. That’s the highest number in nearly 50 years of CDC records. With June already breaking heat records, this summer could be even worse.

People with heart disease are particularly vulnerable, and their risk is predicted to climb. According to the National Institutes of Health, cardiovascular deaths in this country due to very hot weather may come close to doubling by mid-century. Worse yet, data published in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation, say deaths from extreme heat could increase by 233 percent in the next 13-47 years if policies proposed to curb greenhouse gas emissions that power climate change are not implemented or–perhaps even more unsettling–if they are tried and simply do not work.

The problem, the Harvard Medical School’s experts explain, is that when the air around us is too hot even healthy people have only limited ability to cool down. Our temperature rises, our head aches, our muscles cramp, and our gut revolts: we vomit. Should our body temp rise to 104F or even higher, that’s heatstroke, a medical catastrophe that can damage kidneys, brains, and muscles.

While this can affect even the most fit among us, some people are more vulnerable than others. On the at-risk list: People who work outdoors (including athletes as well as beat cops), people who work in hot environments (think firefighters) and, of course, the homeless. Less obvious but equally problematic folk include pregnant women, adults and children with asthma or diabetes, and anyone taking meds such as diuretics, that affect their body’s ability to stay hydrated.

Clearly, you can’t control the weather, but you can reduce the risk for yourself–and those around you. Luckily, the folks who write the Harvard Health letter have a whole list of possibilities.

First, drink plenty of water. The old advice to gulp down eight glasses a day is old hat; just take a cup whenever you’re thirsty or sweating heavily. To keep your home cool, fill your dinner plates with food that can be served cold so you don’t have to use your oven or range. And watch the windows. Cover them with curtains, shades, paper, or any material that will keep the sun from shining in. Then, early in the morning or late at night when the temp is generally lower, open the windows to allow air in and use a simple fan to circulate it.

Now having protected yourself, check up on needy neighbors and friends. To make sure all is well, call or text or better yet knock on a door to see the person in person. Mayor Adams recently opened over 500 colling centers in the five boroughs, so if someone you know doesn’t have air conditioning, find the nearest cool room by dialing 311 or clicking on to Cooling Center Finder where you type in an address and Bingo!

Finally, the long-term answer to hot weather may be green as in trees, plants, and policies. The tree canopy is protective, not only as a cooling agent but also as a factor that removes pollutants from the air. Last year, NYC got $15 million dollars from the feds to further the Adams administration’s commitment to achieve a 30 percent tree cover across the city, as laid out in PlaNYC: Getting Sustainability Done. For a fast start, this year alone, NYC Parks has already planted 15,000, about 12,000 of them on City streets. By 2027, the agency expects to plant a tree in every viable location in the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods.