Extreme cold usually deadlier than extreme heat, data shows
UC expert shares factors that leave some people more exposed to the elements
At least five deaths across three different counties in Ohio already this year are being investigated as hypothermia-related. Data from the Hamilton County Coroner's Office shows that in Cincinnati, cold is deadlier than heat.
Between 2020 and 2024, 28 Cincinnati area residents died from hypothermia, which usually is caused by the cold. That's more than twice the number of those who died from hyperthermia, the medical term for when someone's body overheats.
"There are similar risk factors for both," Joseph Kiesler, MD, recently told The Cincinnati Enquirer. He's a professor of family and community medicine in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Kiesler has treated unhoused patients for more than a decade. He said using alcohol, old age, dehydration and malnutrition are factors that leave some people more exposed to the elements than others.
Potential victims of last month's snowstorm and subzero temperatures hailed from Hamilton, Warren and Clermont Counties, and ranged in age from from 35 to 94.
Three of the victims were not unhoused, with the exception of a 45-year-old man in Felicity, who was found unresponsive in his van.
The housing status of one unnamed man found face down in the snow behind Norwood's Skyline Chili is unknown, according to the Norwood Police Department.
Featured image at top: iStock/MarianVejcik.
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