National News Roundup – July 23, 2024

Governments Take Action to Address Heat Waves

New “heat officer” jobs and projects aim to mitigate effects.

A new line of work is rapidly emerging in local and state governments across the nation. Units of government are appointing “heat officers” to head up new “heat mitigation” departments. Numerous cities have declared heat emergencies as summer temperatures soar to all-time records.

The relentless heat is taking a toll on public health, municipal resources, and the energy infrastructure. In 2022, the most recent year for reliable data, roughly 1,670 people died of heat-related causes, the highest such number in at least two decades. Hot weather can be particularly harmful for the very young and the elderly, but other age groups are not immune. In Los Angeles, California, a UPS worker died from heat stroke. Heat is also potentially deadly for unhoused people and negatively impacts heart health for a large portion of the population.

A growing number of local governments are establishing teams or departments to help mitigate the effects of hot weather. These units are scrambling to increase access to public swimming pools, construct splash pads, and establish cooling centers where residents can access water for drinking and cooling off. A few cities have used parked transit buses with their engines running and air conditioning on high to provide temporary cooling centers for residents.

New Brunswick, New Jersey now offers a Heat Stress Training seminar to city employees, since many municipal workers are required to be outdoors to perform their tasks.

Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, and Miami-Dade County, Florida, are among cities that have created “Chief Heat Officer” positions tasked with coordinating heat mitigation efforts across agencies. Cities must deal with growing energy demand and aging grid infrastructure and balance the need for life-saving energy with emissions reduction goals.

Nearly 100 cities worldwide have joined the C40 Cool Cities Network to share ideas and strategies to beat the heat. C40 has developed what they call an Urban Cooling Toolbox. Go here to view or download it.

(Sources: Planetizen, SmartCitiesDive, Tap Into)

3-D Printing Touted as Potential Housing Solution

University of Maine unveils device that can print prefab homes.

The University of Maine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center (ASCC), has unveiled what it says is the world’s largest polymer 3D printer, “BioHome3D,” the only printer building homes with local wood fiber and bio-resin materials.

Most current prefab construction printing relies on concrete, with a robotic arm equipped with a nozzle layering wet concrete into the right shape. Concrete homes also need to be built on site, which can be a construction problem in cold, snowy climates. By contrast, ASCC printed prefabricated modules are built at a manufacturing facility and bolted together on the home site to create BioHome3D.

“Nobody’s ever done this before with these kinds of materials,” said Habib Dagher, executive director, Advanced Structures and Composites Center, University of Maine. The new printer can produce objects as large as 96 feet long by 32 feet wide by 18 feet high and can print up to 500 pounds per hour. Dagher says that the goal is to be able to print 1,000 pounds of material in an hour. At that rate, it could reproduce the BioHome3D in 48 hours, he says.

If they can reach that target, their 3D-printed homes will be “very competitive with current housing construction costs,” he adds.

The BioHome3D’s wooden floors and walls give it the look of a sleek, modern Scandinavian-inspired log cabin. “Many people feel concrete is a cold thing to look at and it’s not necessarily where you want to live,” says Dagher. The BioHome3D, however, is “very warm and inviting.”

The new 3-D home design is also sustainable. When a home is no longer needed or wanted, it can be ground up and used to print something else. ASCC is using wood residuals from Maine’s sawmills in its research, and they are looking into scaling up production using these local byproducts.

(Source: CNN)

Contact Us for More Information

The above news items are provided for informational purposes and are not intended to reflect MMRMA opinions, coverage, or risk management recommendations.

Please contact Membership Services if you have specific risk control questions or concerns.