Hazards from Cold, Heat and Poisons In Daily Life : How to Avoid Them

Environmental hazards cause tens of thousands of deaths a year, even in developed countries the size of Britain. Individuals can prevent many of the deaths by simple direct action, but only if they understand the problems and ways to counter them. Those are often not obvious. For example, winter causes far more deaths through mild cold stress precipitating common diseases, than through severe cold stress causing hypothermia. Hot weather causes heart attacks and strokes, and replacing salt lost in sweat can be as important as replacing water in preventing them. Some unsaturated fats in food are more dangerous than saturated fats. This booklet gives an independent assessment of such hazards, in non-technical language. Work by the author and his colleagues provided many of the new findings on cold, heat and immersion. That work was based mainly at The London Hospital Medical College and at Queen Mary, University of London, where the author was Head of Physiology and Dean of Basic Medical Science.