Travel & Lifestyle: Heat Wave Safety Tips | HuffPost Life

Now that it’s deep summer, heat waves are repeatedly hitting across the country. If you have air conditioning, it makes sense to put it on full blast. But if AC isn’t an option or if yours has decided to go on the fritz, it’s fair to think flipping on a fan will help keep you cool. Unfortunately, that fan hack only works to a certain extent.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and an arsenal of health care providers warn against using a fan when indoor temperatures get above 90 degrees.

“Although it may seem odd, when it is very hot and dry, fans may actually cause more harm than good,” said Dr. Henry Young, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Using a fan when temperatures soar above 90 degrees can actually raise your body temperature, working against your efforts to stay cool — and running the risk of serious health complications in the process. “Counter to what we think, fans do not actually lower air temperature: They move warm air away from our skin, which makes us feel cooler,” said Dr. Eric Ascher, a family medicine physician at Northwell’s Lenox Hill Hospital. “If the air temperature is similar to or warmer than your body temperature, you may be increasing your body temperature by using fans.”

Humidity plays a role in this, too, said Dr. Lauren Snyder, a family medicine physician and assistant professor at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She points to a recent New England Journal of Medicine study that looked at fan use in older people in hot environments; it found there was less of a cooling effect as the humidity dropped.

Fans are an iconic accessory in hot weather, making this advice a little confusing. Here’s why flipping on a fan can be dangerous in a heat wave, plus a few things you can do instead to stay cool when temperatures soar.

If you’re in the air conditioning and you want to turn on a fan, go for it. But if the air is hot when you turn on the fan, think again.

“In settings with very hot temperatures, your body is already working hard to stay cool,” Ascher said. “Using fans when the air is hotter than your body means more hot air is permeating your skin, making you hotter. That puts more stress on your body from heat.”

Dr. Richard Ricciardi, associate dean of clinical practice and community engagement at the George Washington University School of Nursing, compares using a fan in hot temperatures to walking into a sauna. “That doesn’t cool you off,” he points out.

But there’s more going on here than just feeling hot. Being exposed to high temperatures puts you at risk of heat-related illness, including heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps and more, Ricciardi said. Symptoms of each condition vary slightly, but Ricciardi says it’s important to be on the lookout for these:

• Headache
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Weakness
• Irritability
• Thirst
• Heavy sweating
• Elevated body temperature
• Peeing less than usual
• Muscle cramps

If your heat illness progresses to heat stroke — the most serious form of heat illness — you may experience passing out, sweating profusely, seizures and having a very high body temperature, according to the CDC. Heat stroke can be deadly, making it important to take these symptoms seriously.

Handheld fans are a big accessory when it’s scorching out, but you may run into the same issue when you use these outside. “Handheld fans during a heatwave will not offer relief and may make you feel hotter,” Ascher said.

There is an exception, though: A misting fan may help cool you off, according to Dr. Janet M. O’Mahony, a Baltimore-area primary care doctor at Mercy Medical Center. These tools squirt water onto your skin and then blow it off. “Evaporation is the most efficient cooling,” O’Mahony explained. “As water evaporates, it removes heat from the skin.”

It can be hard to know what the exact temperature is inside your home at any given moment. And, as a result, it’s equally tricky to know when to put the fan away.

Young recommends paying attention to how you feel. “The biggest concern is if you feel that the air being circulated by the fan is hot or you feel as though you are getting hotter as opposed to cooler with the fan on,” he said.

You may also develop symptoms like excessive sweating but no relief from the heat, lightheadedness, dizziness or nausea, said Joset Brown, emergency and trauma nurse and associate professor in the Rutgers University School of Nursing. Those are signs it’s time to look for air conditioning, she said.

While being in the air conditioning is always helpful, experts say, there are other steps you can take to try to cool down in a heatwave.

• Focus on hydration. “Drink plenty of water, and limit the amount of alcohol or caffeine that you are drinking,” Young said.
• Dress for the heat. Young suggests focusing on wearing light, loose-fitting clothes.
• Try to stay in the shade. It’s not your imagination — temperatures tend to be cooler there, Snyder said. “Seeking out shady or covered areas will help a lot,” she added.
• Space out your meals. “Eat multiple light meals throughout the day because your body is already working hard to maintain proper temperatures,” Ascher said. “We don’t want to spend extra energy on digesting complex meals.”
• Cool your skin directly. Brown suggests taking cool showers, using misting fans and spray bottles, and damp cloths under the arms, groin, neck, wrists and forehead. “These areas have lots of pulse points, where blood vessels are close to the skin, to allow for faster skin cooling,” she explained.
• Use fans strategically. If it’s too hot to have a fan blow directly on you, Brown suggests pointing the fan out a window to help exhaust the hot air out of your home.

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Still, Ascher recommends being in the AC as much as possible in a heatwave. “This could be at a library, mall or your favorite restaurant,” he said.