I’m apartment-hunting in Boston. This city loves its old buildings, and many of them haven’t been updated with air conditioning. With temps reaching a muggy 90 + degrees for days at a time, that’s freaking me out a little. But of course, people are coping with hotter temperatures for longer times in many parts of the world, without the luxury of AC.
One of those places is Uttar Pradesh, India -- childhood home of Dr. Gulrez Shah Azhar -- where it gets as hot as 120 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Dr. Azhar, it might be time for northeasterners like me to try things like napping during the hottest part of the day, and working earlier in the morning and later at night. If you live in a drier climate, he says, consider a device called a swamp cooler, or hanging wet curtains to cool down the breeze.
Americans feeling the pinch of inflation are hacking down their budgets as prices rise, and many of us didn’t have much cash on hand to begin with. If you’re struggling to make ends meet, buying household items from discount stores, or picking up furniture at a yard sale makes financial sense. But researchers, physicians, and ordinary citizens have found lead in items like vintage ceramics and toys. The toxic metal also turns up in items found at discount stores like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar.
In 1978 the federal government banned the use of paint containing greater than 600 parts per million lead for residential purposes. But that didn’t affect the second-hand market. And experts say it’s hard to know which products contain the toxin. "Don't purchase vintage toys for your children to play with," cautions Dr. Kandace Fisher-McLean, a safe housing expert with the National Healthy Homes Partnership. And a study this year of discount store products found toxic chemicals including lead in more than half of the 226 items tested. Midwest Newsroom spoke with parents, advocates and researchers working to spread awareness of lead in household items.
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