Healthy? Doctors Say Extreme Heat Could Still Threaten Your Life
“We all are at risk for heat, especially as we get into more extreme conditions,” says emergency medicine physician Renee Salas on this week’s Zero.
Tourists in the shade at Obradoiro Square during high temperatures in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Aug. 10.
Photographer: Brais Lorenzo/BloombergAs temperatures rise around the world, extreme heat events are becoming more common — and more deadly. And yet, most people still don’t think about heat as a major health risk, even if they’re part of a group that’s disproportionately vulnerable to it.
This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi sits down with Renee Salas, an emergency medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and a leading expert on climate change and its impacts on health. Salas says doctors are increasingly concerned about the impact heat can have on the body.