More frequent heat waves can lead to problemsIf we had saved all the sweat that came off Americans this past July, we could have floated Noah’s ark into the next century. With temperatures setting record highs, the word “cool” is destined to be dropped from the dictionary.Sweating is nature’s way of letting us cool our overheated bodies because it carries heat up to the skin for evaporation. when it’s very hot out, we can sweat off eight quarts of body water a day. Although sweat is mostly water, it does contain minerals such as sodium, calcium and potassium. if too much sweating occurs, a person can become dehydrated or develop a salt loss problem that can be life-threatening.This summer, heat waves struck the Eastern United States and also the Middle East, Eastern Europe, parts of Russia and Northeastern China. We shudder at the thought that global warming might be part of the cause. according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, severe heat waves characterized by masses of warm air that remain stationary with consecutive nights of high minimum temperatures will intensify in the United States and Canada from global warming.As global warming continues, the number of days of heat waves in Chicago is expected to increase 25 percent. Smog will become worse as the warm temperatures result in an increase of the ground-level ozone that occurs on hot, sunny days when pollution car exhaust mixes with pollution from other sources. Smog damages the lungs, causing many cases of heart and lung disease and death. The heat waves will result in more problems from asthma and especially affect the young and the elderly. Heat waves and smog cause problems for people with weakened immune systems and those living in poverty who do not have air-conditioners.With global warming comes flood-related accidents because there are bigger and more frequent storms and hurricanes that contain more water. The food supply is threatened and the air and water are dirtier. of all the national disasters, drought and famine cause more than a half of all the deaths. Estimates predict that by 2050, sea level will rise one foot and flood damage will increase 60 percent. Thirteen of the 20 largest cites on Earth are located at sea level or on the coasts and are subject to flooding.With warm spells and global warming, mosquitoes move to higher elevations and are found farther north. The West Nile virus has been seen again in new York. In 1999, it first came to the United States by an infected traveler or from infected mosquitoes. It infected wild birds, resulting in 4,000 human infections and the death of 263 people. Headaches, flu symptoms, confusion and a stiff, painful neck may occur.Dengue fever is a disease that became a worldwide problem in the 1950s. It is found in the tropics but is endemic in Puerto Rico and many tourist locations in Latin America and Southeast Asia. It has been a problem at the Texas-Mexico border and now in Key West, Fla., where 28 cases have been diagnosed since 2009. The illness affects blood clotting with findings of bleeding from the nose, skin, gums and vagina. often, bloody urine is noted. The person often gets fever, headache, a rash and the eyes hurt.With 300 million to 500 million new cases a year, malaria kills more than 1 million people annually. In Africa, the number of deaths from malaria, an infectious agent, is second only to those from HIV. In the past, quarantine of infected people kept malaria out of the United States, but in recent years approximately 1,500 cases are reported in this country a year.Today, a person can fly to anywhere in the world within 24 hours. if the traveler is infected and is bitten by mosquitoes after arriving in the United States, we could have an epidemic of malaria in this country. It is most important that airlines screen people for travel to be certain they don’t have an infection.As we wait for the undesirable effects of global warming, we should be careful and on the lookout for insect-borne diseases during these summer heat spells. The female black widow spider has a bright colored hourglass on its underside, the brown recluse spider has a violin pattern on its upper body, mites burrow in the skin, chiggers cause welts, wasps and yellow jackets give painful bites. Deer ticks transmit Lyme disease, which sometimes causes a bull’s eye-rash. The tick is tiny and becomes firmly attached to the skin.hopefully, the heat waves will end, global warming will be prevented and the word “cool” will remain in our vocabulary. Submit a Comment