by Donald Wood
Last updated: 12:10 PM ET, Mon April 22, 2024
As travelers continue booking summer vacations, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a new Heat and Health
Initiative to protect Americans from heat exposure.
In partnership with the National Weather Service (NWS), the CDC
unveiled a new initiative with three resources. These resources provide
proactive actions that travelers can take to protect themselves.
The keys from the CDC include staying cool, remaining hydrated
and knowing the symptoms.
“Heat can impact our health, but heat-related illness and
death are preventable,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H. said. “We are
releasing new heat and health tools and guidance to help people take simple
steps to stay safe in the heat.”
For travelers, the CDC and NWS created the HeatRisk Forecast
Tool, which provides a seven-day heat forecast nationwide that reveals when
temperatures may reach levels that could harm their health.
The agencies also launched a HeatRisk Dashboard, which
combines the HeatRisk Forecast Tool data with other information, including
details on local air quality, to advise Americans on how to protect themselves
when temperatures rise during the busy
summer travel period.
Another aspect of the newly developed CDC clinical guidance
is that it helps clinicians keep at-risk individuals safe when temperatures
rise.
A recent report from the CDC found that daily emergency
department visits due to heat-related illness peaked in several regions over
the warm-season months in 2023 and remained exceedingly high for an extended
duration.
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