Several heat waves struck Europe and North America. Last year, Canada had a devastating one which took the lives of many. It's no joke. Temperatures are rising and couple that with increasing humidity, our body's natural response, perspiration, won't be able to bring enough relief to stabilize us. This could lead to death.
To understand what it feels like to be in an environment produced by a heat wave, Marco Chown Oved enters the Montreal Heart Institute's climate-controlled chamber to see the effects that such conditions would do to the human body.
But at the Montreal Heart Institute’s integrative human physiology laboratory, there’s a climate-controlled chamber that acts like a time machine. Professor Daniel Gagnon can recreate the precise conditions of any heat wave — the hot and dry Australian heat wave last January that had highs of 46 degrees or 1995’s hot and humid heat wave in Chicago, when temperatures reached 39 degrees, but with the humidity, it actually felt like 56 degrees.
Gagnon's team strapped him with sensors to measure his body temperature, sweat rate, and heart rate then ushered him into the chamber. He was given water every 20 minutes, placed a fan to help him cool off, and sponged his skin with cold water every now and then. After the experience, he felt light-headed and walked feebly. He lost a whole pound during the whole experiment.
Read more on this at The Toronto Star.
(Image credit: Ava Sol/Unsplash)