this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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chapotraphouse
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The weirdly low dangerous wetbulb temperatures are actually arrived at with extremely low humidity and a very high dry bulb temperature. As long as the dry bulb temperature is below body temperature you can still passively cool especially with moving air, although obviously it gets much worse the closer both numbers get to body temperature. A dry bulb that's 20 degrees below body temperature will always be cool regardless of how efficient sweating given the humidity.
I'm aware, but you're ignoring solar gain. A dry bulb in shade will read differently than a dry bulb in direct Sun; sunlight can easily add enough heat to raise the dry bulb from 79°F to 88°F because you're getting heat from radiation in addition to convection.
Then add in physical activity and poor air flow, add in people unprepared to dress appropriately and poor hot-climate infrastructure, it's entirely possible for 79°F to become dangerous - especially to vulnerable populations.
"If you're wearing a parka, and doing heavy exercise in the sun, and not drinking water, and also you have other health problems too, then this otherwise cool and pleasant temperature would become a problem" isn't a very sound argument. Like yes, if you're actively overheating yourself and also dehydrated and also overdressed and also you don't do anything at all to mitigate these things you're actively doing then you're in for a bad time, but you can also mitigate this by not doing that, by drinking enough water, and by having an electric fan. You should never just passively have trouble with a temperature that's 20 degrees below body temperature, that's colder than an air conditioned space should be. Like here the temperature outside actually is 88F, it's passively 85F inside, and after running the AC for a while I stopped it at 82F because it was getting chilly.
"If you're able to do x y and z to mitigate the heat then this is a cool and pleasant temperature" is not a sound argument either.
Public health warnings are not about naked people sitting perfectly still in the shade in front of a fan. Try doing manual labor in the Sun while wearing PPE and your boss will fire you if he catches you sitting down or taking too many water breaks. Warnings like this give workers the power they need to stand up to their boss because, if they are injured, liability falls back on the boss. We aren't just talking about people "passively" having trouble, we're talking about the entire population.
79F isn't even "you need to mitigate this" weather. It's cold, and only if you do things that would be dangerous at even colder temperatures does it hypothetically become a problem. You can give yourself heatstroke while standing knee deep in snow if you try hard enough, that doesn't mean freezing temperatures are dangerously high.
Ok let’s not over exaggerate lol. 79F is not cold weather lol. It’s not even chilly.
That just opens you up to mocking from the other direction.
It is below the temperature of my air conditioned room.
That says stuff about you, not 79F
Your air conditioned room has no humidity and isn't in direct sunlight. This is why I brought up wet bulb temperatures! That's why I keep pointing out radiation in addition to convection! And you're just sitting around in your room and probably dressed comfortably! All of that adds up and you're just ignoring all of it.
And I've already explained that "twenty degrees below body temperature" is cool, and "but what if there are also a ton of extra, additional things on top of that like open flames and parkas and heavy exercise and no water and still air and also it's underwater and also the water is boiling and and and and..." doesn't change that, because those are additional, other things that are bad in and of themselves and would be a problem if it were 30 degrees below body temperature or 40 degrees below body temperature.
There is absolutely no case in which a temperature below 80F can be considered hot, and "it doesn't do enough on its own to mitigate these other extra, additional environmental hazards that are unrelated to it" doesn't change that.
I'd love to see you have this conversation with someone who works in like road construction or something.
I worked in street markets in Egypt in +100 degree temperatures. Do I get to make fun of frail Angloids?
I work in a factory in Iowa, anything above 70 and I sweat tons because I'm doing physical labor in a humid environment. Yes, if I don't dress appropriately and have fans pointed at me and drink lots of water (which I do!), I could get very sick.
It’s literally required in leases here in Florida that you keep it at 78 or below to avoid mold growth
Reminds me of the texan suburbanites who threw a fit about how they "cOuLd HaVe DiEd" when their houses' smart thermostats adjusted from 65 to 68. Anyone and any place that expects the temperature to be kept at frigid "you need a warm blanket and you'll still be cold" temperatures is deeply unserious.