
Living With Load Shedding
4 hours is a long time to live without electricity. A lot of unforeseen health emergencies can happen unexpectedly at that time. What is more surprising, however, is the slow and salient impact of load shedding on your health. Living with load shedding is a lot of work.
How Do You Survive Load Shedding?
The electricity crisis has highlighted the need for South Africa to do the following:
- Save power.
- Relieve generators from making and distributing power at the same time.
- Control waste.
With all of the extra measures South Africans put in place to substitute the lack of power, our carbon footprint is increasing.
Granted, some households are lucky enough to have solar panels. But other homes are burning gases, diesel, paraffin, charcoal and firewood to replace the lost electricity. This is done to provide fuel for generators, cooking, heating and light.
These processes emit greenhouse gases that harm the environment. But they are also inhaled and ingested by your body, exposing you to dangerous health effects.
The Health Dangers of Load Shedding
Load shedding has become a way of life in South Africa. But living in darkness for a prolonged time requires alternate sources of power. Substituting electricity can be intoxicating and harmful to our health. Here are the health dangers of each major fuel used to power up our homes during load shedding:
- Diesel is linked to several serious health issues including aggravating asthma, heart and lung disease and cancer. It also causes dizziness, headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation.
- Paraffin may impair lung function and lead to infectious illnesses, including tuberculosis, asthma and cancer. Inhaling paraffin can also cause respiratory and eye irritations. Close contact can also cause chemical burns.
- Burning gas emits pollutants that can cause or exacerbate respiratory illnesses. Gases infiltrate the lungs and lead to breathing difficulties. They cause asthma, lung allergies and bronchial diseases.
The issue is that South African homes, businesses and emergency facilities must maintain continuity of service. This means that the conditions in our country have left us with no choice other than to live and work this way.
How else would important institutions stay open if they were to wait in the dark for 4 hours without power? We understand the potential risks for homes and businesses. But what impact does this national crisis have on our healthcare systems and what can we do to cope?
How Does Loadshedding Affect Healthcare?
South Africa’s healthcare industry has seen brighter days. Too many South Africans are left in the dark about how and where they can get the treatment and care they need.
South Africa is fighting to stay healthy amid the following challenges:
- Heavy load on healthcare facilities
- Hygiene and infection control
- Light and temperature control
- Cold storage for food and medication
- Equipment for surgical procedures and cleaning
- Diagnostics services for pathology and radiology
- Communication and admin for case management
The major obstacle for many South African facilities is that they fail to ensure that their backup generator is well-serviced and up to date. This results in delayed emergency treatment, which puts many patients in danger.
Affinity Health members can use the iER to be connected to a network of thousands of medical service providers when they need it most! The user-friendly mobile will need stable mobile data connections and GPS access for iER to pinpoint your location and send service providers to where you are. The service is available 24/7! Visit the iER website for more information.
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