Heat disorders can be mild or severe:
Heat rash
While not life-threatening, heat rash can certainly interfere with vacation fun. In hot, humid environments, sweat cannot evaporate easily, leading to plugged sweat glands and a consequent skin rash. The rash can be treated by cool showers and cornstarch-containing powders. To prevent heat rash, keep the skin dry and wear fast-drying clothing.
Heat fatigue
Characterized by discomfort, irritability, disorientation, headaches, and fatigue, this mild disorder can be alleviated by getting out of the heat, relaxing, and drinking plenty of cool liquids.
Heat cramps
Physical activity in a hot environment can cause these painful muscle spasms. Massage the affected muscles and drink both water and electrolyte replacement drinks, as cramps are indicative of an imbalance in the body’s normal fluid and salt content.
Heat exhaustion
A more serious loss of body fluids and salt, decreased blood flow to the brain and other organs and heat exhaustion leads to symptoms such as excessive sweating; cool, pale, and clammy skin; weakness; nausea, headache, dizziness; and slightly elevated body temperature.
To prevent bacterial food poisoning, the basic rule is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Perishable foods (with or without mayonnaise) may not be safe to eat if they have been held at temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (4-60 degrees Celsius) for more than two hours.
Heat stroke
The most serious of heat disorders, heat stroke, is the result of a complete breakdown of the body’s cooling mechanisms. Symptoms include lack of perspiration; red, bluish, or mottled skin; hot and dry skin; strong, rapid pulse; rise in body temperature; severe headache, chills, or nausea; mental confusion, dizziness; unconsciousness, convulsions, and eventual coma. Heat stroke should be treated immediately because it can cause brain damage and death. Call for emergency help, then remove the victim’s clothing and cool the body by rubbing with a cold sponge or ice pack, cold compressor, a fan, or by immersing in tepid water.
Food Poisoning
Summer vacation are full of picnics, and picnics bring food out into the open where it can stay warm too long. Avoid an outbreak of food poisoning this summer by following simple guidelines about food safety and food handling. Common sense will prevent you and your friends and families from coming down with a food-borne illness.
Don’t Hold the Mayo!
Many people are uneasy about eating chicken salad, potato salad, and similar dishes at summer picnics because they have heard that foods made with mayonnaise are the most likely ones to cause food poisoning. And somehow, the mayo has gotten the blame for this problem.
Although one doesn’t often think of hand-washing at a picnic, bacteria and viruses are no respecters of vacation or leisure-time activities. If no hand-washing facilities will be available, take pre-moistened towels with hand soap added, and fresh ones for ‘rinsing’.
Scientists have shown, however, that adding mayonnaise to food does not make it more dangerous, because the acid in the mayonnaise can actually prevent or slow the growth of bacteria that cause food poisoning. Mixed foods, like chicken salad, probably get their bad reputation simply because they are handled a lot during preparation, and this can contaminate them with bacteria.
To prevent bacterial food poisoning, the basic rule is to keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Perishable foods (with or without mayonnaise) may not be safe to eat if they have been held at temperatures between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit (4-60 degrees Celsius) for more than two hours. In very hot weather, over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, that time should be reduced to one hour.
One practical way to keep foods safe for a summer picnic is to keep them in a cooler with ice or reusable cold packs until you are ready to eat. If you use ice, remember to pack the food in tight containers or plastic bags to prevent the food from getting wet when the ice begins to melt.
Uncooked meats contain relatively large numbers of bacteria, some of which could be harmful. Fortunately, the bacteria that commonly cause food poisoning are sensitive to heat. Therefore, proper and thorough cooking will most often kill them, making the meat safe to eat. These bacteria can cause problems, however, if they cross-contaminate other foods, such as salads, which will not be cooked prior to being eaten.
Although one doesn’t often think of hand washing at a picnic, bacteria and viruses are no respecters of vacation or leisure-time activities. If no hand washing facilities will be available, take pre-moistened towels with hand soap added, and fresh ones for ‘rinsing’. These precautions are particularly important for those who prepare and handle the food!
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