CDC's summer heat advice contains one sentence many households miss: electric fans may increase body temperature when indoor temperatures are above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, because in that situation the fan can move hot air across the body without solving the heat load. [1]

That does not make fans useless but conditional, and CDC's broader heat page points readers toward air conditioning, cool showers, hydration, checking on vulnerable people, and planning for medicines and electronic medical devices during power outages, which turns a weather warning into a household checklist rather than a contest of toughness. [1]

The service value is in those details, since a person taking medication that affects hydration or heat tolerance has a different risk profile from a healthy adult with a cold drink and a shaded room, while a patient who relies on powered medical equipment needs an outage plan before the hottest afternoon arrives.

NIOSH's heat-stress guidance keeps the worker side visible too, naming heat illness as an occupational risk rather than a test of character, and summer heat may be political in the aggregate, but in the room it is practical: know when a fan stops helping, know where the cooling center is, and know which medicine or device cannot wait. [1] [2]

-- NORA WHITFIELD, Chicago