How do your zip code and medications make you susceptible to heat risk? CDC tool aims to help

Roughly 2,300 people in the U.S. died due to extreme heat in 2023. That risk is likely not going away soon, as scientists say climate& change is causing more intense and frequent heat waves. To address that, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released& new tools& to help people plan for higher temperatures across the country. The tools include heat risk forecasts,& links outlining medications& that could make you vulnerable during a heat wave, and a& list of actions& individuals can take to stay cool. The goal is to help people stay safe and address a rising number of heat-related emergency room visits and deaths in recent years. Seventy people died in the Midwest from exposure to excessive heat in 2018 – that number increased by around 70% in 2022 reaching 120 deaths, according to the CDC. While Southern states had the largest volume of ER visits for heat-related illnesses between 2008 to 2020, the Midwest has seen the largest average annual increase in visits during the same period. Dr. Ari Bernstein, the director of the National Center for Environmental Health at the CDC, said the new heat tools are aimed at getting regions that historically have...