How does the body respond to dangerous heat?
Climate change is leading to extreme heat levels that may exceed the threshold at which the human body is capable of cooling itself, which can lead to heatstroke and other health concerns, according to experts.
An April 8 Grist article highlighted several studies that have measured the highest wet-bulb temperature—which accounts for both temperature and humidity—that the body can tolerate, including a study led by Robert Meade, postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“With climate change driving heat waves, there’s been a lot of interest in defining these upper limits,” Meade said.
In the study, participants sat in a heat chamber—set to a temperature of 42 °C (108 °F), with humidity steadily increasing—for up to nine hours. “Imagine moisture condensing on the skin like a glass of water on a hot day. That’s how hot it was, compared to skin temperature,” Meade said. He and his colleagues estimated that the maximum wet-bulb temperature that the body can tolerate is 26–31 °C (79–88 °F), much lower than researchers previously thought.
Read the Grist article:
The world is heating up. How much can our bodies handle?
