Coping with the heat !

[Doc Alan]

Sorry if you think this thread is unnecessary, in view of the publicity and warnings given about the heat wave currently affecting most of the UK.


Of course some parts of this country have experienced temperatures approaching or exceeding 30C ( 86F ) which are an everyday occurrence in the Philippines, elsewhere in the tropics, and consistently in the summer in countries like Spain and Italy. The sort of weather we’re experiencing is what many go on holiday to guarantee !


Whenever temperatures are unusually high ( or low ) for a given region, problems arise. These include excess numbers of deaths. A heatwave 10 years ago claimed 15,000 excess deaths in France, and 2,000 in the UK. The statistics are not precise – for example, many of these deaths would probably have occurred within weeks in people who were already sick. Heatstroke ( or hypothermia in the winter ) might not be included when the underlying cause was ( say ) heart disease.
Young children, elderly, and people already in poor health are most at risk.


Sensible advice is provided daily by the media while this heatwave lasts. There are three basic complications :-
• Sunburn – seek shade, protect skin with suitable clothes, sunhat, sunglasses, and lotion with Sun Protection Factor ( including insect repellent ).


• Heat exhaustion – the person feels sick, faint, and sweats heavily – improving with rehydration ( not alcohol ) in a cooler place.



• Heatstroke – the body can’t cool itself, there is confusion, rapid breathing, then loss of consciousness – obviously this is an emergency !


http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Heat-ex.../Symptoms.aspx

[imagine]

People are not used to it in UK, and are unprepared.

[stevewool]

To tell the truth, after a full day's work I just sit in the house with the doors and widows open, and try to keep out of the sun.

Silly it sounds, but here the sweat just gets to me

[jake]

I thought this thread was about the Philippines

Most people in the UK do not drink enough water and the consequences can be severe.

If someone is planning to move to the Philippines, I would advise them to take their time acclimatizing to the heat.

[somebody]

A good post thank you so many people at present in the UK, when they go to a country where the temperature is warmer or even those living in phill can benefit from.
I see plenty of the wife's cousins back in pinas not drinking enough liquids feeling ill and then taking meds but not more liquids!
Really does pay to have a quick look at the colour of your pee to make sure it's not to dark as if so you need more liquids asap.

So many people from warmer countries have said the buildings, the street layout (many high streets want sunlight if possible most of the year so little shade) all the tarmac, concrete and steel which trap the heat etc. Also the pace of life in the uk watch a brit or phill now living in the uk walking in pinas with phill based family and friends they will look like Olympic speed walkers. Just as in the cold it is best to speed up outside to warm up in the summer heat slowing down a tad can stop you feeling like your melting :-D

[Doc Alan]

For those used to tropical temperatures and typhoons, warnings about England’s current short-lived heatwave may be thought unnecessary, but this is the advice which has been issued :-



• try to keep out of the sun between 11am to 3pm

• apply sunscreen of at least SPF15 with UVA protection

• wear UV sunglasses, preferably wraparound, to reduce UV exposure to the eyes

• wear light, loose-fitting cotton clothes, a hat and light scarf

• drink lots of cool drinks

• look out for others especially vulnerable groups such as older people, young children and babies and those with serious illnesses

• never leave anyone in a closed, parked vehicle, especially infants, young children or animals


https://www.gov.uk/government/news/heatwave-on-the-way

[Slip]

I am enjoying the cool weather right now..... Doesn't feel hot at all for me after 6 weeks in the Philippines in stifling heat last month!

[les_taxi]

If someone is planning to move to the Philippines I would advise them to take their time acclimatizing to the heat

Yep, exactly what I did, found a bar and drank ice cold lager - did it for me

[mickcant]

Thanks Doc.
Apart from taking my dog "Charlie" regular short walks while it is this warm, we have as good as a draught possible with windows open and my fan whizzing away.

And do drink lots of water.
Enjoy it will too soon be back to normal wet and gloomy

Plus even for an like me the ladies look very good in skimpy outfits

Mick.

[stevewool]

Plus even for an like me the ladies look very good in skimpy outfits

Mick.

I like to see them too Mick

[Slip]

Lovely shift of overtime at work this afternoon.... First job loading 3 tonnes of crabs ready to go aboard a flight to China! To say I sweated buckets is an understatement, but the can of orange and a magnum ice cream from China Southern Airlines went down a treat

[Doc Alan]

Lovely shift of overtime at work this afternoon.... First job loading 3 tonnes of crabs ready to go aboard a flight to China! To say I sweated buckets is an understatement, but the can of orange and a magnum ice cream from China Southern Airlines went down a treat

Seems like a cure for THIS fever !

[Michael Parnham]

I like to see them too Mick

So do I

[Terpe]

I like to see them too Mick

[stevewool]

well what a difference in the weather today, nice and cool with the rain, windows open with the cooler breeze too, life is good

[Michael Parnham]

Pond's full!

[Dedworth]

Great humourous take from the Daily Hate Mail

Thank the Lord for Public Health England! Without this invaluable quango to guide us, which of us would ever have guessed that one way to cool down the bedroom on a hot night is to open the window?
Who would have dreamt that it might be wise, in the heatwave predicted for this weekend, to wear light, loose-fitting clothes? Or to avoid extreme physical exertion? Or to slake our thirst with cool drinks? Or to keep in the shade during the hottest hours of the day, perhaps even staying inside and drawing a curtain to block out the sun when it’s at its fiercest?
I mean, just imagine the suffering that might have been in store for us this summer, if the Coalition had kept its promise to build a ‘bonfire of the quangos’ and Public Health England (PHE) had been consumed in the flames, leaving no government agency to advise us on how to cope.

There we would all have been, sweltering in our tweed suits, sweaters and winter overcoats, sprinting down the High Street in the full blaze of the July sun, parched with thirst, sweat streaming from every pore and wondering why on Earth we felt so uncomfortable.
Our homes would have been ovens, the radiators turned up full blast and the sun streaming in through tightly shut windows, baking us to a frazzle as we tucked into our Lancashire hotpots and steamed steak-and-kidney puddings, instead of the quango’s recommended salads.
As it is, this ever-merciful Government has chosen to spare PHE, with its mission to ‘save lives, promote well-being and create environments where individuals, families and communities can feel informed, empowered, healthier and happier’.
Thanks to ministers’ endless generosity with our money, therefore, we learned this week that it’s a mistake to leave our dogs and babies locked in parked cars in a heatwave, while it may be advisable to wear sunscreen when it’s sunny and look out for the old and ill. Apparently, they may be more vulnerable to hot weather than more robust folk, what with their being old and ill.
All right, by now it may be time to drop the leaden irony and confess that on this list of achingly banal and obvious tips there was one that took me by surprise. This was the advice that to help us keep cool, we should switch off non-essential lights and electrical equipment.
Of course, I can see that this makes sense if the appliances PHE has in mind are sun-lamps, electric blankets, industrial dryers or four-bar heaters.
I’ve also changed enough lightbulbs in my time to know that they get hot — though the fiendishly expensive, low-energy sort we’re now forced to buy emit far less heat (and far less friendly light) than the good old incandescent variety.
But can a TV, a radio — or the kind of lamps you and I use to read by — really make a health-threatening difference to the temperature of a room?
If my suspicion is right, those fatuous quangocrats encountered the same difficulty in compiling their tips as I used to suffer in my younger days in this trade, when I was sometimes called upon to write features in the form of lists.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/ar...#ixzz37v9i4nbe

[Doc Alan]

Tom Utley in the The Daily Hate Mail article ridicules the 41 page over-the-top dumbed-down Public Health England Heatwave Plan . He’s not the only one ! If only PHE had confined themselves to bullet point reminders ( # 6 ) ! As it is, few people will have read the document, and the heatwave appears over for now.


Of course we don’t live in a perfect world and make lifestyle choices which may lead to ill health. If everyone was sensible, sunburn, premature skin ageing, and eye damage, such as cataracts, from excessive sun exposure would be avoided. The dramatic increase in skin cancers – especially the most lethal one, malignant melanoma – would be halted. Likewise older people, those with serious illnesses, young children, babies and animals would never suffer or die from heat exposure.


PHE was set up last April ( 2013 ). It’s a quango ( Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organization ), funded by taxpayers, but not controlled directly by central government. This government doesn’t appear so far to have had their promised " bonfire of the quangos ", to reduce numbers ( over 700 ) and costs ( up to £ 60bn ).



PHE might be more effective if there were fewer staff - such that they didn’t have time to produce lengthy documents, which are either unread and / or attract ridicule. A staff of 50 might be reasonable. The actual number of employees ? 5,000 .


Meantime ? I’ll continue to answer members’ questions if I’m able, and try to select topics which could be relevant to the UK and the Philippines .