There is a silent killer in our society, our great and fair country of Australia, and I think it’s time it was named and shamed.
When I was growing up we didn’t have air conditioning, some houses had a ceiling fan, some had a ‘breezeway’ but we had nothing. We went to school in uncooled boxes and played in the blistering sunshine (no sunblock) and rode home on our bikes. When I moved to Melbourne in 1976 the trains were still the wooden red rattlers and the trams the old style all with no aircon. And we survived. Frankly, I’m buggered if I know how. Today the heat of summer is all too hideous and miserable for me and I crave aircon lest my body starts to shut down. I sweat in places where I doubt there are sweat glands and I dehydrate faster than my African Violet.
I don’t mind the sunshine; in fact a sunny day in Melbourne in March with about 18-24 degrees is my idea of gorgeous. I know some who claim to ‘enjoy’ the heat…mind you from their air-conditioned cars or homes. I love the cold but I like to be comfortable so I guess it’s sort of the same but then I do expose myself to the cold as much as possible.
It is disturbing to see tennis being played at the Australian Open when we have plus 40 degree temperatures but that is about money isn't it?! Of course if, perish the thought, one of the players drops dead of a heart attack and the family sues the Open we'll see how important money is. Thankfully sense prevailed today and the matches were put on hold.
My biggest concern about the heat though is the trauma of fires that comes with it. It is terrifying and sad each warm season to see the destruction wrought by fires and the awfulness of lost lives and property not to mention the horror that must go with being caught in a fire.
Whilst some find cold weather a bit of a trial (you can always get warm but can rarely get cool I find) there is no escaping how dangerous heatwaves are- they are killers.
In fact heatwaves are our biggest national killer, well ahead of fire and floods. Those of us ageing (in the hot weather I find I age rapidly) find this of particular relevance and those of us in the city are more vulnerable because of what is called the Heat Island Effect (HIE) ... which can add up to four degrees to temperatures. This can be further exacerbated due to a prevalence of dark-coloured pavements and roofs that absorb heat, and a lack of shade and green space.
A report from the Government last year (http://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure/pab/soac/index.aspx) shows that heatwaves in our major cities are more deadly than other natural disasters, causing 2887 deaths since 1890.
This is more than bushfires (843), cyclones (935), earthquakes (13), floods (453) and severe storms (124) combined.
After our hottest decade in history, many Australian cities and towns recording their hottest days (and nights) ever and sustained periods of hotter weather we are looking at something dangerous this way coming! And because our population is ageing we may not have the infrastructure to cope - hospitals, water supplies, electricity etc.
And this is all before we re-visit the craziness (observed on the TV news on Tuesday night) of people flocking to the beach and lying out in the blazing sun with no sun block or insufficient. Today an average of one Australian dies every day from skin cancer or a sun related cancer, I fear those numbers are not going to reduce if we don't wake up to ourselves. I even heard someone say the other day 'oh I only stay out for about ten minutes', stupid.
So this silent killer has to be stopped! If a person took out a couple of hundred lives a year there would be the biggest hunt on for the serial killer and all sorts of laws passed to stop anyone else doing it.
Heat is insidious, evil and harmful and I HATE IT.
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