Tuesday, July 31, 2012

"New York Times on heat related deaths"

I can't tell you how many times I have flashed back to the summer of 98.  I was living in a Baltimore city apartment on Calvert Street.  I had no air conditioning and I was on the 3rd floor.  The average temperature of my apartment was about 130 degrees.  I did not sleep.  But when I went to bed, I'd soak a sheet in water then wrap myself in it.

Whenever I was in the apartment I lost so much water (heat stroke or heat exhaustion symptoms unsure what that is) I had water pouring off of me as if I were in a rainstorm.  My body was trying to cool itself and I wondered if I would die.

I had no money to install a room air conditioner and my attempts at acquiring one through the "Asthma and Allergy Foundation" who supposedly had such a program proved fruitless.  With this story in mind I will cut to yesterday's article:

HEAT CAN BE A DEATH SENTENCE FOR PRISONERS

My summary of the article is that many prisoners are dying in unairconditioned prisons.  Some are arguing that it is a violation of human rights (that's my argument)

and others do not believe it is

The article is in the NYT on July 29th, 2012

No comments: