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Climate change is turning dehydration into a deadly epidemic
- olivermarks 8y agoThis seems to be primarily about the effects of sugar when hydrating in very hot conditions '...rehydration with sugary drinks. Frequently, not trusting the quality of local drinking water, workers drink sodas and soft drinks, and experimental evidence suggests that doing so can lead to even more kidney damage'.
- choot 8y agoI wonder if an app can be built, so that when above normal people are dying in a place a well funded international team can be dispatched to figure out the issue as soon as possible. So that we are able to contain mysterious virus and other such outbreaks. Why wait till more people lose their life?
- cf498 8y agoWho determines what above normal means, and who is preventing people to game the system? And who is funding the dispatch team? Alot of people are dying right now, and the funding situation for aid is depressingly bad. An app isnt going to solve these issues, funding and geopolitics are a much bigger factor
- cronix 8y agoThis sounds like it would be happening in places that wouldn't necessarily have smart phones, or possibly not even have cell coverage. Not to completely dismiss your app idea, but it doesn't sound like it would be feasible in a lot of the places where this sort of thing is happening.
- pjc50 8y agoIt's the status quo, it happens all the time. There's no money in it, and many people are actively hostile to the idea of saving foreign lives if it involves any cost to them as taxpayers at all.
- rjsw 8y agoHow does the app know that you are dead ?
- raverbashing 8y ago99% of cases will have an obvious cause of death.
- paulcole 8y agoSeems like the trickier part here is the “well funded international team.” Classic HN to think another app is the secret sauce to solving this problem.
- will4274 8y agoI believe the study referenced by the article is: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974898/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4974898/
- joveian 8y agoAlso see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120672/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120672/ This is the study refereneced about mice developing chronic kidney issues from delayed hydration (even given the same amount of water overall). No sugary drinks involved. Also, since PubMed doesn't have a PDF of the one you mentioned for some reason, here is a pdf link for that one: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ramon_Garcia-Trabanino/publication/282787897_Heat_Stress_Nephropathy_From_Exercise-Induced_Uric_Acid_Crystalluria_A_Perspective_on_Mesoamerican_Nephropathy/links/578dd1ce08ae5c86c9a6ba8f/Heat-Stress-Nephropathy-From-Exercise-Induced-Uric-Acid-Crystalluria-A-Perspective-on-Mesoamerican-Nephropathy.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ramon_Garcia-Trabanino/...
- choot 8y agoI wonder why isn't there a website where people, it could have been posted "workers are dying in El" Then other people on the internet would have suggested theories and some might even have got more evidence. Why researchers keep this detective work to themselves? Why not take inputs from internet?
- monochromatic 8y agoWe’re at what, one degree warmer than a century ago? I have trouble believing that’s causing any noticeable effect in terms of this disease.
- unimpressive 8y agoCelcius.
- monochromatic 8y agoYes, one degree science.
- pdonis 8y agoShouldn't the headline be "failure to provide clean water is turning dehydration into a deadly epidemic"?
- qqqwerty 8y agoFrom the article: "Instead of his usual fare of nephrology and diabetes papers, Johnson began to pore over global maps of climate and solar radiation. The rise in average temperatures over the last few years in Central America had been incremental, but the number of extreme events had gone up disproportionately. “And, by gosh, the areas that have the highest solar radiation and heatwaves are overlapping the places right where the epidemics are.”" You might not agree with what they are saying, but they are clearly arguing that climate change is a factor in the epidemic.
- pdonis 8y ago> they are clearly arguing that climate change is a factor in the epidemic. Yes, because they're failing to even ask the question of why there is no clean water supply in the first place. That's not a climate problem. If it's not OK now when the temperatures are a degree or so warmer, it wasn't OK before either.
- qqqwerty 8y agoThis is what the article says, in regards to water: "Frequently, not trusting the quality of local drinking water, workers drink sodas and soft drinks, and experimental evidence suggests that doing so can lead to even more kidney damage." I find it hard to believe that someone who has access to soft drinks doesn't have access to clean water. The way I read the above statement, is that the workers don't trust the local water (i.e. well water or streams, it's not clear), so they bring their own hydration, but unfortunately they are bringing soft drinks instead of bottled water. So if you want to change the title, the alternate title would be 'Coca-Cola is turning dehydration into a deadly epidemic". But still, this is not quite right, because Coca-Cola has been in the global market place for decades, so I would presume workers drinking soft drinks in these areas is nothing new. But what is new is climate change, hence the original title.