The Department of Health’s heat wave warning, at level 3 for the West Midlands, made me think of my visit to Pakistan in the summer of 1999. While I was there, rumour spread through the village that a well known local farm worker had ‘gone mad’ while working in a field. I later learnt that he had actually suffered from heatstroke, with confusion and disorientation being a known side effect. A few days later he was back to work.
I find it funny, however, that in our relatively tame summers, it only requires several days of temperatures to hover over or just below 30 degrees for micro-guidance to be issued on wearing ‘loose fitting clothes’, taking ‘cool showers or baths’ and eating ‘more cold food, particularly salads and fruit’.
All over the world, in hotter climes than ours, people know exactly how to cope with the extremes of weather, without having their hands held by the clerisy.
No comments:
Post a Comment