Working construction under the merciless Arizona sun, Eleazar Castellanos knew the signs that heat exhaustion was settling in.
On the days when the temperature would top 100 degrees, he and his coworkers would sweat profusely. Then came the cramps in their arms and legs, and the overwhelming urge to stop: take a break, get some water, cool down.
But they couldn’t. Not if they wanted to get paid and return home to their families as breadwinners.
“Many of the employers don’t understand, we need to have breaks, to have water,” Castellanos said. “You don’t stop, because you know if you stop, you stop getting money. We try to get it done whatever the situation is.”
Count Castellanos among millions. New research released Wednesday by a consortium of medical and public health experts finds that the number of Americans exposed to heatwaves continues to grow, with 2020 marking the second highest level of dangerous exposure since 1986.
But the research, led by the international health expert consortium Lancet Countdown and co-published in the United States by the American Public Health Association, doesn’t stop there. Heatwaves and their ability to exhaust and kill are only one of many public health threats on the rise, they found, as climate change warms the globe and sends weather patterns haywire.
Droughts lead to crop loss, obliterating jobs and the means to access health care. Wildfires send plumes of toxic air pollution into the air, which can travel thousands of miles across the country and catch those suffering from respiratory ailments off guard. Worsening pollen seasons further add to the stress for those with asthma and other conditions, spiking emergency room visits.
Most at risk are marginalized communities of Black, Latino, Indigenous and Asian Americans, who are disproportionately located near sources of pollution, or lack the means to protect themselves and access health care.
Climate change is first and foremost a health crisis,” said Dr. Renee Salas, an attending physician and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Harvard Medical School, and lead author of the U.S. report.
To read more of Kyle Bagenstose's article, click here, Climate change is 'first and foremost' a health crisis, new report finds (yahoo.com)
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