Men’s unwillingness to use parasols could be a reason they experience heat illnesses more often than women, a health expert said on Sunday, as temperatures soared across the nation.
Pauling Chu (朱柏齡), head of the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Heatstroke at Tri-Service General Hospital in Taipei, said that one reason more men are sent to emergency rooms for heatstroke than women is that most of the people who work outdoors are men.
Another possible reason is that while women often use umbrellas during summer, men are more likely to wear wide-brimmed hats to protect against the sun, he said.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
While parasols are like “mobile gazebos” that can keep the user in the shade, wearing a wide-brimmed hat tends to leave a person’s body exposed to the sun, he said.
Chu said he conducted an experiment over the weekend by walking outside from 9:30am to 10am.
He found that when he was using an umbrella, he barely sweat, but when he was not using it, he perspired profusely, he said.
Only about one in every 20 men on the street uses an umbrella, Chu said, citing his personal observations.
While some men might feel that holding an umbrella diminishes their masculinity, or think that only women use them, parasols are just a tool, he said, adding that people should not make gender distinctions.
Citing his personal experience, he encouraged men to use umbrellas to fight the summer heat, saying that doing so can make a difference of at least 5°C in apparent temperature.
Two years ago, in response to the extreme heat, the Japanese government began promoting the use of umbrellas among men, he said, adding that he hoped the Taiwanese government would follow suit.
In the first 10 days of this month, 190 people were sent to emergency rooms for loss of consciousness caused by heat injuries, a four-year high for the month, Health Promotion Administration data showed.
Among the patients, there were 2.65 times as many men as there were women, the data showed.
Data from 2016 to last year also showed that about three to four times as many men were sent to the emergency department for heat injuries than women from May to October.
HPA Community Health Division head Lo Su-ying (羅素英) urged men not to be shy about using an umbrella when going outside.
If they do not want to carry an umbrella, they should wear a wide-brimmed hat, as well as comfortable, breathable and loose clothing to prevent heat injuries, she said.
Elderly people’s and children’s ability to regulate their body temperature is less efficient than that of adults, Lo said, urging people to drink plenty of water on a regular basis, instead of waiting until they are thirsty.
Taipei and Nantou County yesterday saw a daytime high of 38°C, due to a Pacific high-pressure system and seasonal southwesterly winds, the Central Weather Bureau said.
It issued a “yellow” heat alert for Taoyuan and Tainan, as well as Chiayi County, warning of a one-day high of at least 36°C.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS