Things To Do In SW Florida

Florida’s record hot summers can be dangerous for some people and a new study puts numbers to just how dangerous those soaring temperatures can be.

The Sunshine State leads the country in the number of emergency room and hospital visits from heat illness and has more than six million at-risk residents and outdoor workers, according to a report released this week by the Florida Policy Institute.

The state saw more than 26,000 emergency room visits and 5,000 hospitalizations for heat-related illness between 2018 and 2022, according to the most recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control data compiled by the Orlando-based institute, a nonprofit organization that researches health, education and other policy issues.

Lives were lost, too. It’s estimated that 150 Florida residents died from heat-related illnesses between 2017 and 2021, ranking sixth in the nation. Arizona, the study found, finished first for heat-related fatalities.

Those numbers, as the Miami Herald found last year, are likely an undercount, with heat’s impact watered down in official statistics. For example, when someone is hospitalized for a condition worsened by heat, their provider typically records only the chronic illness as a cause. The new report also highlights that some Floridians, such as outdoor workers who may fear retaliation from employers for reporting an incident, are excluded from national statistics. read more