119 people in Tokyo taken to hospital to be treated for heatstroke on Saturday

I don't know if this is just my train line but JR is cutting back on keeping these trains nice and cool. Can't stop sweating even though I'm not doing anything but riding the train today! And no I didn't ride the dreaded 弱冷 car. Stay safe everyone! Looks like summer is going to be harsh yet again this year!

Even though my local beach is not ‘officially open’

I was there-water just right too!

Its nice to be the only one in the water…

We're talking about Saturday's heat at 4pm on Sunday?

@SDCA

JR has been cutting back on AC for the past 13 years during the summer since 3/11. Before that the trains used to be nice and frosty during the summers. I guess, at the time. A nuclear disaster was a good excuse to cut back on unnecessary electricity. Too bad the Japanese passengers don’t complain as there hasn’t been summer electricity supply issues for over a decade now.

It’s summer so it’s supposed to be hot. It seems to me that people have become less heat tolerant in the past 10 years. Don’t worry too much about people over 70 dying of heat stroke. It’s called survival of the fittest and natural selection.

Meiyouwenti

Don’t worry too much about people over 70 dying of heat stroke.

How very kind and compassionate of you, hope one of them isn't your parents.

Wallace

What a ghastly thing for that person to say, ignore them, not worth a second of your thoughts.

its been ruddy hot here too! Phew! What a scorcher. Luckily I work for myself and can mostly go out when I please you see.

Today, not going out until just after 6, but of shopping and take son for dinner. I’d advise anyone to bang the AC on, if worried about cost, don’t! Your health must be your top priority.

Meiyouwenti

not quite how natural selection works (after menopause aside from taking care of grandkids, you are essentially evolutionary dead meat)

Meiyouwenti

Today 05:12 pm JST

It’s summer so it’s supposed to be hot. It seems to me that people have become less heat tolerant in the past 10 years. Don’t worry too much about people over 70 dying of heat stroke. It’s called survival of the fittest and natural selection.

No need to worry about anything then. Pretty much everything is survival of the fittest

I've been in Japan over 30 years.

It was never like this.

As for the heat being natural selection, your empathy for your fellow human is interesting to say the least

How many of those 119 Tokyo area ambulance trips with sirens blaring were real emergencies?

Judging by the fact that only 3 people were not already released, we can conclude that the vast majority of cases did not require an ambulance.

Compare current news from exceptionally hot Shizuoka. Out of 35 heat related ambulance trips, 32 were mild and 3 were moderate.

This is an abuse of the emergency care system. Meanwhile the few real emergency incidents face slow response times.

It is not wise to want very cold temperatures inside trains or restaurants in the summer. Your body will better adjust to the temperature when you enter and exit if there is not an extreme temperature difference.

Bellflower

Today 05:57 pm JST

How many of those 119 Tokyo area ambulance trips with sirens blaring were real emergencies?

> Judging by the fact that only 3 people were not already released, we can conclude that the vast majority of cases did not require an ambulance.

> Compare current news from exceptionally hot Shizuoka. Out of 35 heat related ambulance trips, 32 were mild and 3 were moderate.

> This is an abuse of the emergency care system. Meanwhile the few real emergency incidents face slow response times.

You can conclude that the vast majority of cases don't require an ambulance?

How are they going to the hospital?

JR has been cutting back on AC for the past 13 years during the summer...... [Snip]

Was just down in Tokyo yesterday on the Yamamote line and it was damned freezing. Same wiry the subway liens. Don't know where you coming from bro...

JR has been cutting back on AC

Out of curiosity, is it possible you never noticed the "弱冷車" sign on some cars?

Live in a concrete jungle like Tokyo where the goal is to concrete everything in sight then it’s gonna get hot…

Surprising that so many heat stroke cases would come from 33c max temp. That is not all that hot.

It has been pretty scorchio the last few days. I think it hit 37°C here on Thursday, and there's much less baking concrete here than in Tokyo.

It’s summer so it’s supposed to be hot. It seems to me that people have become less heat tolerant in the past 10 years. Don’t worry too much about people over 70 dying of heat stroke. It’s called survival of the fittest and natural selection.

It says the people affected were between the ages of 2 and 99. A two-year old probably doesn't have the strongest constitution or heat tolerance, and wouldn't be classified among the fittest. Would you write them off too? It's more like survival of the people who follow sensible procedure and ensuring anyone under their care does so too when it's dangerously hot.

Surprising that so many heat stroke cases would come from 33c max temp. That is not all that hot.

There's also the humidity and heat index to consider.

Don’t worry too much about people over 70 dying of heat stroke. It’s called survival of the fittest and natural selection.

As well as showing an uncaring attitude to the elderly, you wrap it up in a basic misunderstanding of natural selection. By 70, most will have already passed on their genes if they are going to.

Secondly, grandparents have a key role in human survival. While parents were doing their hunter-gathering activities, grandparents could look after children, increasing their chances of survival to adulthood and passing on their genes. If there no grandparents*, the human species would likely have gone extinct long ago.

*Of course, very few ever made it past 70 historically, but there were people in their 50s and 60s.

40C recorded today in Shizuoka.

And a thought should be given to all those in India and other countries who are, more and more, having to experience temperatures over 50C.

As mentioned above many factors contribute to heat stroke risk aside from temperature.

A more approprite measure used is wet bulb temp or wet bulb global temp, an index that uses several factors. Here's the forecast site for Tokyo

https://www.wbgt.env.go.jp/en/graph_ref_td.php?region=03&prefecture=44&point=44132

One reason why it's so darn hot is because Japan cuts down anything green... unless it's giving off pollen in a cedar forest MEANT to be cut down long ago. There was ONE large tree on my 3 kg walk to work until a month ago and the city cut it down for absolutely no reason. Now there is almost no shade at all on the walk. The road is, of course, asphalt, the sidewalks the same or concrete, and most houses have no lawns, and the parks are all just sand and one lonely bench and slide. When walking, you feel the heat coming off the ground as well as the scorching sun from above and even off concrete dividing walls in front of houses! It's heat-island effect to the extreme. And then of course you have the clowns watering their driveways... you know... to watch the cement grow. Yeah, it may cool down some of that trapped heat, but grass and other green works a lot better and does not harm the environment as much.

“Heat stroke's primary symptoms include a change in mental status, such as confusion, delirium, combativeness, seizures, loss of consciousness, and a core body temperature above 104 F. Heat exhaustion can present with dizziness, headache, nausea, weakness, unsteady gait, muscle cramps and fatigue.”

I’ve had heat exhaustion and the symptoms were exactly as described above. I remained in the hospital ER for about 90 minutes and was given two bottles of solution intravenously. Be warned: it sneaks up on you.

heat stroke and heat exhaustion are different.

heat exhaustion is treated with an iv and the person recovers without a hospital stay. symptoms include headache, nausea and cramps.

heat stroke is a life-threatening condition with the core body temperature above 40°c and serious symptoms, including seizures and hallucinations.

about 75% of patients hospitalized for heat- related symptoms are heat exhaustion. if 119 people had heat stroke, at least 10% would not recover.

let’s do better in reporting.

I've been in Japan over 30 years.

It was never like this.

Buchaildana - Its ALWAYS been like this.

Always.

In fact, things are much improved. Floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and extreme temperatures claim 95% fewer lives today than just a century ago.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157

Out of curiosity, is it possible you never noticed the "弱冷車" sign on some cars?

I try to avoid that car at all costs but I'll try to check better next time.

JR has been cutting back on AC for the past 13 years during the summer since 3/11. Before that the trains used to be nice and frosty during the summers. I guess, at the time. A nuclear disaster was a good excuse to cut back on unnecessary electricity. Too bad the Japanese passengers don’t complain as there hasn’t been summer electricity supply issues for over a decade now.

that's right, I almost forgot. I still feel like some train lines within JR are using their A/C more optimally while the train I ride has it on fan mode lol. Eh, but I'm complaining too much. Hope we can all beat out this heat and that includes those over 70 Meiyouwenti!

Summer is here, as has been the case in every year past,

Crank up the A/C on high as usual.

Set aircon to 16c and take taxis everywhere. Survive!

Yes, being able to walk in the shade makes a big diiference.

As for the deaths of the elderly, is it any wonder when electricity is so expensive? And with the insulation of typical apts in Japan, it is worse during the evening when the absorbed heat in the building walls is slowly released.

If there's anything to blame it's URBANIZATION which has been happening (in Tokyo) since the late 50's.

All the concrete and asphalt absorbs the SOLAR HEAT and is a driving force of the HEAT ISLAND EFFECT

I was in a more rural area (far less asphalt & concrete) today and it was reasonable for a summer day .

Its ALWAYS been like this.

Always.

And

Summer is here, as has been the case in every year past,

Why are people so keen to deny climate change? The fact that the temperatures are getting hotter is well-documented.

Since 1990, Japan has experienced a notable increase in summer temperatures. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) provides detailed records and analyses of temperature trends. According to the JMA, the average temperature in Japan has increased by about 1°C since 1990.

Specifically, during the period from 1990 to the present, the average summer temperature in Japan has risen by approximately 1.0 to 1.5°C. This trend is consistent with the global pattern of rising temperatures due to climate change, driven primarily by increased greenhouse gas emissions.

To illustrate:

The 1990s saw a series of warm summers, but the 2000s and 2010s have experienced even higher temperatures.

Record-breaking heat events, such as the 2018 heatwave, underscore the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat in recent decades.

This warming trend has been documented in various scientific studies and climate reports, underscoring the significant impact of climate change on Japan's weather patterns.

Dutch fact, things are much improved. Floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and extreme temperatures claim 95% fewer lives today than just a century ago

A Foodland his knowledge are soon parted.

I'm talking about the last 30 years

2023 was the hottest global year on record since 1885.

the last 12 months have each been hotter than last year.

not opinion, simply measured data.

Astonishing the climate deniers,

All around the world from the Caribbean to Kenya to India

But they will say it's just the media.

dutchJuly 7  09:14 pm JST

In fact, things are much improved. Floods, droughts, storms, wildfires and extreme temperaturesclaim 95% fewer lives today than just a century ago.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162520304157

Just because technology has improved weather prediction, communication, and germ theory doesn't mean technology will be able to save us when crops won't grow and you can't go outside without dying from heatstroke.

Out of curiosity, is it possible you never noticed the "弱冷車" sign on some cars?

@ /dev/random

I've done that.

I was glad to find out the other cars were cool!

Summer is here, as has been the case in every year past,

As the article clearly points out, this is not the case, latests years come with higher temperatures, earlier during the year and in more days than previous years. And that is already causing health problems that are projected to become more and more serious.

I was in a more rural area (far less asphalt & concrete) today and it was reasonable for a summer day .

If every regions has higher temperatures in the most recent years you are not proving your point, things can be worse everywhere lately and also things can be worse in some places compared with others, both things can be true at the same time.

It’s hot. My AirConis broke on Friday morning and the building management couldn’t fix it … “Shogunai”.. :(

Maxxed out at just under 34C at our place yesterday, but that's in the shade. The sun was beating down and it was way hotter if you were in it. If the science bods are to come up with a new heat index data thing, I would like it to include a "temp in full sun" aspect, not just the shade

If anyone wants to reduce their cooling (and heating) bill, inner windows are heavily subsidized again this year. We had them fitted last year and its definitely cooler now upstairs in our place.

Already??? But summer just began.

Heck, I come from a tropical country and the number of people I've known to have gone through heatstroke, I can count them with one hand. And it is hot down there. Really hot and for longer months, with droughts and all that.

People with zero common sense, I say. None!

In a misguided act of optimism I went jogging on Saturday afternoon. I will certainly not be doing that again.

Tokyo is a massive heat island. All that concrete, steel, glass, pavement and aircon running around the clock. It's no wonder people suffer under those conditions.

The Japanese don't seem to differentiate between heat exaustion and heatstroke. I suspect most of the cases reported here are in the former category, with the few remaining in serious condition the actual cases of heatstroke.

The Japanese don't seem to differentiate between heat exaustion and heatstroke. I suspect most of the cases reported here are in the former category, with the few remaining in serious condition the actual cases of heatstroke.

That’s been my experience, too. When I talk to friends, acquaintances, and neighbors (in Japanese), they use the same term for either one, whether they visited the hospital or not.

Still, if in doubt, get it checked out.

Its always been like this

Not really no.

How last September was indeed a record high, at least for the 100 yrs or so of these records.

https://www.data.jma.go.jp/obd/stats/etrn/view/monthly_s3_en.php?block_no=47401&view=1

its illuminating that my pointing out a 95% drop in climate related deaths in the last century was met with such vitriol.

The alarmists don't care about human life. Quite the opposite.

Their end game is political. Always political.

I do most of my running around before 9am and relax the rest of the day -Covid taught us that going to the office is necessary in many cases…

No need to set A/C below 23c. It over works the A/C, uses much more power costing much more money and gives little more comfort than 23c anyway. When its over 32c outside, walking into 23c feels nice and cool. When its around 40c, walking into 23c feels almost cold.

Use A/C wisely, stay cool, conserve electricity, save money and you win all around. For the record I set mine at 24c, and thats nice and cool on the hottest days.

But to each their own strategy for dealing with the heat.

My temperature setting is 25ºC but then I live on a beach and not in a hot concrete jungle.