Canada is entering unchartered territory as it regularly experiences record high temperatures. It is predicted that this trend will continue and periods of extreme heat in Canada will be more frequent, intensify, and likely to be five times more deadly within the next few decades. However, our understanding of the effectiveness of commonly recommended heat-mitigation strategies to protect vulnerable Canadians and Canadian workers remains incomplete, limiting our ability to make evidence-based decisions on the best strategies to implement.
We showed that the body’s response to heat is impaired in healthy adults as young as 40 years. This impairment is worse in older adults and in those with common chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. In these individuals, heat tolerance is reduced as the body is unable to cool itself via the evaporation of sweat, placing them at increased risk of heat-induced illnesses or death.
Given that Canada’s population and…