Nobody wants to be stuck without air conditioning on a hot day, especially in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. High temperatures are a normal part of summer in this part of Texas, and the only way to stay comfortable is to have a reliable air conditioner on duty in your home. When your AC breaks down and you need emergency air conditioning, Rescue Cooling is here to help. But emergency air conditioning isn’t just for comfort — it also saves lives.
How Heat Affects the Body
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that heat causes nearly 700 deaths per year in the U.S. With the advancement of climate change, this number may only grow.
The human body attempts to regulate its temperature and cool itself through two main methods: sweating and breathing. High humidity makes your body’s job harder, because sweat will evaporate from the skin less quickly, and it’s the evaporation stage that cools the body. When a body stops sweating in the presence of extreme heat, it’s a sign of trouble. Once the body gives up in this effort to cool itself, the brain is in danger of damage from overheating. The kidneys as well as the circulatory and nervous systems may also be affected.
When it gets too hot, your body can suffer from heat exhaustion. Signs of heat exhaustion include:
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Heat rash
- Muscle cramps
- Dry, red skin
- Fainting
Heat exhaustion, while uncomfortable, is not life-threatening. Symptoms can usually be managed by resting, applying cool compresses to the body and drinking cool beverages.
Heatstroke is similar, but more serious, as it can eventually cause death. Symptoms of heatstroke include:
- Body temperature over 103
- Dry, red skin
- Dizziness
- Confusion
- Loss of consciousness
In 2018, a 19-year-old football player at the University of Maryland suffered heatstroke and died during an off-season workout. Reports say that he exhibited symptoms of heatstroke, but coaches and staff did not call for help. UMD settled with the student’s family for $3.5 million. It’s critically important to treat heatstroke immediately. Waiting can be fatal. Even those who recover from heatstroke can suffer permanent organ damage and premature death.
Anyone can suffer heat exhaustion or heatstroke, regardless of how healthy they are. But some medical conditions make some people even more vulnerable to illness or death from exposure to extreme heat.
Extreme Heat Makes Asthma Worse
Heat is a trigger for many asthma sufferers, sending them to seek relief from their inhalers. Heat, combined with high humidity, prevents air from moving around (think still or “dead” air) and this makes for higher concentrations of pollutants.
The air quality is often also lower in summer, especially in big cities like Dallas/Fort Worth. Crowded cities in which people are packed together densely make fresh air harder to come by. The heat island affect in Dallas/Fort Worth can make it 12 degrees hotter in the city than out in the suburbs.
Heat Affects Lung Cancer Patients
Chemotherapy and radiation are dehydrating, and hot weather exacerbates these affects, especially if treatments cause vomiting or diarrhea. It’s not always easy to rehydrate if you can’t keep liquids down, and such a situation can quickly turn dire. Likewise, if it’s so hot that you’re sweating more than usual, you’re losing fluids this way as well.
Lung cancer patients who have to endure extreme heat must look out for signs of danger, including increased thirst, muscle cramps, fatigue and dark urine.
COPD and Hot Weather
COPD, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, makes breathing difficult even in the best of circumstances. COPD patients often suffer from chronic bronchitis and emphysema.
Bronchitis causes inflamed airways, and inhaling hot air makes this condition worse. Emphysema destroys the sacs in the lungs, robbing them of their elasticity and making it harder to breathe. Temperatures above 90 degrees can cause emphysema to flare up.
Heart Conditions Made Worse by Heat
Many of your bodily functions depend on your heart. When it’s hot, your heart must beat faster to keep the body cool, and a damaged heart may not be able to keep up. Sweating depletes the electrolytes the heart needs to function.
Heart patients on diuretics or beta blockers may be prone to more serious reactions to extreme heat because these drugs cause dehydration.
Air Conditioner Rentals from Rescue Cooling
As you can see, in some cases, air conditioning is not a mere convenience, but a necessity.
If your AC breaks down and you have to wait for an HVAC technician to complete the repair, call Rescue Cooling in the meantime. We’ll bring emergency air conditioning to your home and set it up for you — you don’t have to do a thing except sit quietly and wait for that first blast of cold air. And you don’t have to wait long — we’re fast, responsive and efficient. We also come collect the equipment when you’re done with it — just give us a call.
Rescue Cooling guarantees that we can cool any space in two hours, but it’s easy to cool a residential space much more quickly than that. Portable temporary air conditioning starts cooling your space immediately, and makes a big difference in your indoor climate within minutes.
Whether it’s you or another member of your family who suffers when exposed to prolonged heat spells, know that the team at Rescue Cooling is on duty — 24/7 — to help make your environment safer and more comfortable with our temporary air conditioning services.
Stuck without AC? Whether it’s a few days or a few hours — you don’t have to put up with it. Call Rescue Cooling for emergency air conditioner rental.