Translated material
Survival under pressure
Hundreds of Russians became victims of abnormal heat
The abnormal heat that has been scorching the center of Russia for the last four days, as doctors warned, has not had the best effect on the health of not only citizens suffering from chronic diseases, but also completely healthy ones. According to preliminary estimates, the historical maximum temperature reached last weekend cost the lives of several hundred of our compatriots. Most of them were victims of exacerbations of cardiovascular diseases, and these were mainly elderly people. The number of tragedies has also increased - on such days, drowned people traditionally appear who tried to escape the heat in bodies of water not intended for swimming or swam while drunk.“The number of deaths could be in the thousands. I think that the current heat will cause 200-300 additional deaths among the urban population of Moscow. We conducted a targeted special study of the effect of heat on the mortality of the urban population,” predicts Boris Revich, head of the laboratory for forecasting environmental quality and public health at the Institute of National Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to him, the first risk group is the elderly. In the second - physically healthy people who “drown in bodies of water to escape the heat.”
According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations as of yesterday, 170 Russians have drowned since the beginning of the week. On Saturday alone - 40 people, four of them in Moscow. “Everyone is a man. Three died in reservoirs in the east of the capital, another in the north-west of the city,” RIA Novosti quotes the words of a representative of the emergency service. According to statistics from the ambulance service, since the beginning of the swimming season, which officially opened on June 1, 26 people have drowned in Moscow. According to the Moscow Search and Rescue Service, last year's swimming season in the capital claimed the lives of 82 people; approximately twice as many citizens were saved. In 2008, 112 people died in Moscow reservoirs. According to the head of the capital's rescue service, Vladimir Plyasunov, “80% of them were drunk.”
But not only swimming, but also walking in sub-40 degree temperatures is extremely dangerous. Especially in big cities. According to doctors, many people's cardiovascular systems simply cannot cope with the combined stress of high temperatures, alcohol and dramatically increasing air pollution. This time, too, the Ministry of Emergency Situations warned that over the weekend in Moscow the permissible level of harmful impurities in the air would be exceeded 1.6 times.
It is no less dangerous to engage in physical work and sports in the heat. One example of the severe consequences of such a load is the death of a 32-year-old goalkeeper of one of the amateur football teams who played last Saturday at the championship held by Sberbank for its employees. The goalkeeper suffered heatstroke during a football competition at the Yantar stadium in Strogin. The man was standing at the gate when he suddenly became ill. The emergency doctors on duty tried to help, but to no avail. According to his colleagues, the man was fond of sports and never complained about his health.
Since in an urbanized post-industrial environment the situation with mass deaths during the warm season is repeated from year to year, the heat factor is being studied as one of the factors influencing demographic indicators. Thus, scientists from the laboratory for forecasting environmental quality and public health at the Russian Institute of National Economic Forecasting have been working in all previous years to study the effect of heat on the mortality rate of the urban population. According to their observations, in a large city there are always local areas of increased risk of heat stroke. This is the so-called “heat island” effect. Areas of abnormally high temperatures are usually located in the central part of the city and are characterized by the presence of tall buildings, paved areas without open land, green spaces and open water. There the temperature can be ten degrees higher than the level recorded by meteorologists.
Doctors are dealing with the effects of heat in their own way. Over the past five days, no one has given recommendations on maintaining the body's water balance, preventing overheating and sunburn. It turns out that even diet affects your well-being at such times. As Olga Polosyants, associate professor of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy and Emergency Medical Care at Moscow State Medical and Dental University, told Vremya Novostei, it is quite natural to change your diet on hot days. For example, eating only once a day and late in the evening, which is not recommended at normal times. The doctor also advises monitoring the time spent in the heat. “Set a routine: 15 minutes outside, then go into any store or bank where the air is air-conditioned, and rest for about the same amount of time,” explains Ms. Polosyants.
Residents of central Russia will have to suffer in this way for several more days, although from today, as forecasters predict, the air will become cooler. Let us remind you that last Friday the temperature record was updated - observation stations recorded a temperature of 32.4 degrees Celsius, which is more than the previous maximum of 31.6 degrees, recorded in 1917 and 1940. On Saturday, the air in Moscow warmed up to 34 degrees, while the record set in 1901 is 34.7 degrees. The beginning of the week is predicted to be a little cooler: the air temperature will drop to 25-27 degrees.