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Welcome to “Australia Explained,” an audio podcast by SBS designed to help you understand and navigate life in Australia.

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You’re listening to Australia Explained, an SBS audio podcast helping you navigate life in Australia.

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Are you aware of risks posed by heatwaves? Summer across Australia can be very hot, and with a warming climate, heatwaves are expected to become more frequent and more intense.

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A heat wave occurs when temperatures stay high during the day and night for 3 or more days. Homes, workplaces, and essential infrastructure often struggle to stay cool, creating uncomfortable conditions and a genuine risk to people’s health.

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Heat waves are called a silent killer because they

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stress our bodies and they can worsen chronic diseases, so people who’ve already got underlying health problems.

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This is Australia Explained podcast, and I’m your host, Maram Ismail. In this episode of Australia Explained, you will learn the risks of heat waves and how to cope with them as they become more common.

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Extreme weather events such as heat waves will become more frequent and intense, which will have social, health, economic, and environmental impacts. The Australian Climate Service recently released Australia’s first national climate risk assessment, which highlighted that in a warming world, our natural hazards are changing. Professor Ollie Jay, academic director of the Heat and Health Research Centre at the University of Sydney,

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says these changes are already clear.

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What we’re seeing over the last 20 years or so is that the number of heat waves is increasing, the duration of the heat waves, so they’re lasting longer, and also they’re more severe as well.

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Heat waves are dangerous because of the combined environmental factors which cause heat stress and the impact of this on our body, which is the heat strain.

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So heat stress is the features of the environment, the temperature, which is measured in the shade, the accompanying humidity, whether you’re

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direct solar radiation and also how windy it is as well. The heat strain is the physiological strain that your body is experiencing.

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When your body experiences heat strain, the body temperature rises, increasing the risk of heat stroke, an inflammatory response syndrome which can be potentially fatal. Professor Jay explains that heatstroke is not the main driver of harm in a heat wave.

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What we see is a big spike in catastrophic cardiovascular events, so

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people with heart disease, they often are at much greater risk of having a heart attack during a heat wave. So really your body is redirecting all this blood away from the body core towards the skin’s surface to try to keep you cool, and that places a lot of strain on the heart. At the same time, we sweat a lot in order to try to increase our evaporative heat loss to keep the body cool. So that results in the risk of progressive dehydration, which then aggravates the risk of heat stroke, but also aggravates cardiovascular strain for people who have those issues.

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greater risk because they sweat less effectively, and in Australia, heatwaves claim more lives than any other natural hazard, as GP Dr Michelle Hamrosi explains.

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Heat waves are called a silent killer because they stress our bodies and they can worsen chronic diseases, so people who’ve already got underlying health problems. We know also how mental health is impacted by heat waves. Hospital presentations increase significantly

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from mental health conditions during heat waves, including increased rates of suicide and violence.

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Michelle says that heat waves can also be a risk for pregnant women, and if you

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become overheated, that really can affect the baby’s health, and you can have increased risk of dehydration, increased blood pressure, and go into early labour.

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Rebecca DeMarco experienced the health impacts of heat waves during her pregnancies for each of her three children.

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And she says being prepared is vital.

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Planning and being aware of what’s coming. It was things like cold showers, minimising how much you are out in the heat, and then of course, trying to minimise the heat in your home, and then obviously have a bit of a toss up with, you know, running air con or trying to cool down in other ways, like fans and stuff. Just being aware and doing those actions before it’s too late.

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Having a heatwave plan is important, as Dr Hamrosi explains.

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Where is the coolest part of your house? Can you create a cool refuge? And often if that is one room in the house that has an air conditioner, think about also if you don’t have access to cooling in your own home, where could you go? Could it be a friend’s house, family, library, shopping centre? And so it’s also really important to plan ahead for a power outage.

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Like putting bottles in the freezer, having like little spray bottles, and making sure you keep things like food and medications in the fridge.

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Open windows when there is a cool breeze and close them as temperatures rise. When the heat sets in, follow a simple routine to keep your home cool.

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First thing I do in my own home is early in the morning, closing up all my blinds around the house, putting my

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fans are a really effective way to keep cool, especially if you can keep your skin a bit damp while sitting under a fan. If you put the air conditioner on, you can set it to 26 degrees, and that can really help you save power. And of course, drink a lot of water regularly during the day.

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Ceiling fans are useful, but only up to a certain point, Professor Jay explains.

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We’ve done quite a lot of work that shows that fans actually end up aggravating

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heat stress, so making the problem worse when the air temperature is above 40 °C. So that’s a good kind of threshold that people can keep in mind. So use fans while it’s below 40 °C, but if it’s above 40 °C, then you’re better off not using a fan.

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Other cooling options include cool showers, wet towels, loose clothing, and avoiding strenuous activity in the hottest part of the day, as Dr Hamrosi explains.

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Can you avoid going out in the hottest time of the day because that’s where people can run into trouble. If you’ve got medical appointments, you know, can you turn it into a tally house so you can avoid going out in the hottest part of the day?

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Remember to also check in on neighbours and elderly relatives, and if you or someone else feels unwell, look for ways to cool down.

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So can they rest in a cool place? Can they sip some more water? Can they put cool

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cloths around them or have a cooler shower in the setting where they’re not feeling better within a short period of time or their symptoms are progressing, it would be advised that they would call their GP or health direct if the symptoms are severe, for example, a person is experiencing confusion, they’ve fainted or having any chest pain, they have a very high temperature, they would be advised to call an ambulance.

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For babies, keep clothing light, even just a nappy on very hot days, and make sure they stay hydrated in a way that’s appropriate for their age.

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They can also be offered cool baths. A play in water’s a really good thing to do during heat waves. And the other really important point is never leave your baby in the car, even just for a short period of time, during a heat wave

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can really quickly overheat.

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If you have to be outdoors. Professor Jay’s advice is to stay in the shade as much as possible.

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It’s important for people to keep in mind that the temperature that we see on the weather forecast, that’s actually measured in the shade. So if you’re out in direct sunlight, you can be exposed to temperatures as much as 15 to 17 °C higher than those temperatures that you think you’re exposing yourself to.

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So finding shade is really important.

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Professor Jay and his team have also developed the free online heat watch tool which enables people to create a personalised heat stress risk assessment.

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So you can enter in how old you are, what kind of chronic disease you might have, whether you have access to air conditioning. It also knows which postcode you’re in, so it draws on freely available weather information.

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It then gives you an individualised or heat stress score so it helps you understand what your personal risk is throughout the day and we give a 7 day forecast as well. We also use it to deliver evidence based personal cooling advice and it helps people plan their activities.

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Heat waves are becoming more common in Australia, but with preparation and awareness, people can reduce their risk and stay safer during extreme heat.

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Thank you for listening to this episode of Australia Explained, written and produced by Phil Tucak, hosted, mixed and sound designed by me, Maram Ismail. Australia Explained managing editor is Roza Germian.

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This was an SBS audio podcast. For more Australia Explained stories, visit sbs.com.au/Australiaexplained.

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Subscribe or follow the Australia Explained podcast for more valuable information and tips about settling into your new life in Australia. Do you have any questions or topic ideas? Send us an email to australiaexplained@sbs.com.au.