With temperatures on the rise, the summer heat gives students a new set of precautions to follow in order to stay cool and safe while walking around campus. Ignoring the precautions and symptoms of heat-related injuries could be fatal. Students can fall victim to dehydration, heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
“I saw a girl come in who wrecked her bike,” said Christen Bachmann, Texas A&M U. senior marketing major and Student Health Services employee. “She was dehydrated, and she passed out while she was riding.”
Rhonda Rahn, health education coordinator for Texas A&M Student Health Services, said dehydration causes people to lose focus and might cause them to pass out.
“It might lead to more severe things, like heat cramps where parts of their body start to cramp up, kind of like a cramp you feel after you have been very active,” she said. “If it gets more severe, it can lead to heat exhaustion, and that can lead to heat stroke and that is the more serious one. Heat exhaustion is serious, but heat stroke will land you in the hospital.”
Nausea, vomiting, weakness, headache and fatigue are symptoms of heat exhaustion. The absence of sweating is an indication of heat stroke, with hot red or flushed dried skin.
Rahn said there are several ways that students can prevent this.
“The first thing they want to do is to drink a lot of water and a lot of fluids, in general,” Rahn said. “It does not necessarily have to be straight water. It can also be sports drinks, non-caffeinated drinks and teas. Students should also wear appropriate clothing — that is clothing that is light-colored and loosely fitting; they do not want to be wearing sweatshirts and stuff like that during summer. Sunglasses are good to protect their eyes, and sunscreen to protect their skin. A lot of people do not think about using sunscreen every day, but they really should.”
Rene Aguirre, senior biomedical sciences major, said wearing a hat keeps a majority of the sun away from your face. Some students have found more creative ways to beat the heat and stay cool.
“My favorite thing is to walk through the sprinklers,” said Michael James, class of 2008 and Student Health Services employee. “Wherever those guys with the power washers are, I’m walking right with them.”
Along with following personal safety measures, some students expressed that the University could help students beat the heat.
“We could use more outdoor water fountains around campus because the majority of them are inside,” Aguirre said. “Or maybe covered waiting areas at the bus stops like at West Campus.”
Some students still fall victim to heat-related injuries, dehydration being the most common.
Rahn said the most helpful thing that students can do if they start to feel dizzy and dehydrated is to get indoors and get some fluids.
“I drink cold water before I have to walk somewhere. It helps,” James said. “Water is the big one. If you don’t like water because it gets boring after a while, spice it up and add one of those Vitamin C or Crystal Light packets to your bottle. But always carry water with you.”