EMTs help a patient in Austin, Texas, this week. The man had passed out near the state capitol and was dehydrated. Cities with few trees and areas of shade are hotter during heat waves.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
By Yuki Noguchi, National Public Radio (NPR), August 10, 2023
Within the past five years, Dr. Sameed Khatana says, many of his patients in Philadelphia have realized how climate change hurts them, as they fared poorly with each wave of record heat.
"Like most public health issues in the United States, extreme heat is also a health equity issue," says Khatana, who is a cardiologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Philadelphia.
Record heat scorching the country is especially dangerous for the many, many people with common conditions like diabetes, obesity and heart disease. And within cities, many vulnerable communities face greater exposure to heat, fewer resources to address it or escape it, and higher rates of the diseases that make heat more dangerous for people.
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