By RAY WYCHE

Summer is at its peak right now.

Hailed in song and poem as a time for easy living, the season does have its attractiveness despite the double whammy of high temperatures and high humidity.

Outdoor activities, as long as they take place near a shade tree sanctuary, are bearable. Locally grown fruits and vegetables are tastier than the shipped-in green stuff that may have been on the road for days. There’re no fuel bills to pay.

But the hazy, lazy days of summer are not the most carefree time of the year health wise. 

Nature, despite its blessings so evident in the warm months, presents several dangers to our physical well-being.  Newspapers, magazines and the Internet are full of advice and warnings about the horrible things that nature can hit you with in summer.

First, there’s the most obvious indication of summer, the sun. A suntan gives testimony to healthful, outdoor living. But the sun can also give you something else—skin cancer.

More than half of the diagnoses of new cancers are found on the skin: basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, and the worst of the lot, melanoma. Why the upturn in cancer occurrence, considering that our ancestors spent more time in sunny summer fields than we do? Some say the depletion of the ozone layer, that filtering sheath in the atmosphere that is thought to screen out suspected cancer-causing ultra-violent rays of the sun, is the culprit.

People exposed for long periods to bright sunlight without protection of sunglasses that screen out ultra-violent rays are four times more likely to develop cataracts, one researcher says.

The sun’s potential dangers can be avoided, or at least modified. Sunscreen lotions and sun glasses greatly reduce the chance of injury on bright sunny days outdoors.

Another sure sign of summer: insect bites. The bite of ticks can result in some nasty diseases, namely, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. This threat can be minimized by use of insect repellants and by a close examination of your body after activities in weedy or wooded areas.

In Columbus County, summertime and mosquitoes are synonymous. The little buzzers that were once considered only minor annoyances for our living in the promised land (after malaria was conquered)  have been found to be carriers of some really scary sicknesses, some of which have been fatal to humans in other areas.

Three diseases borne by the pests—eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile virus and LaSalle virus—are spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes.

Science has come to the rescue of those who must live among mosquitoes.  Insect repellants will keep the little biters at bay, and eliminating containers holding water where mosquitoes can breed is a good deterrent.

Amid the prolific greenery so abundant in the warmer months are some unwelcome growing things: poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac. Experts say the best way to handle these troublesome plants is to avoid them.

Even petting the dog that has brushed against these noxious plants can transfer the offending toxins and put you in a long term scratching mode.

Washing the skin exposed to the oils in these poisonous plants with soap and water soon after contact is the first step to eliminating problems that can last up to six months.

Urushiol, the oil in the poisonous plants that causes all the trouble, is a persistent irritant; even the smoke from burning these poisonous plants, if it touches human skin, can set off an annoying skin rash.

The warm-to-scorching days of “The Good Ole Summertime,” as the old song wistfully puts it, are when the sap in toxic plants is at its peak potency and therefore the most dangerous.

And would it be summer without a thunderstorm or two? Prevention of possible lightning from such weather disturbances is beyond our realm but we can stay away from tall trees, avoid being in the open water, and make sure we are not the highest object in an open area such as a golf course or field when dark clouds form and the sky begins to rumble.

The human body is remarkably resilient when it comes to attacks on it but we are still subject to heat stroke and heat exhaustion in extremely hot situations if we exert too much energy without sufficient hydration.

Not all of nature’s summertime dangers come from above. Who would walk in high weeds or wooded areas without keeping a close lookout for what’s on the ground where you’re about to put your foot?

Columbus County is home to three and possibly all four of North Carolina’s poisonous snakes: rattlesnakes, copperheads, and water or cottonmouth moccasins, and possibly the rare and reclusive coral snake.

Again, the best defense against the crawling reptiles is avoidance. The venomous snakes are not aggressive; they are not out to bite you. They use their only defense—fangs that may or may not inject a powerful toxin—only if they feel threatened or are injured. 

Go your way (with caution) and let them go theirs.

The warm days of summer, so pleasant to dream about in January and February, hold other dangers that are not man-made. We go berry picking and pick up a few thorn scratches and a healthy infestation of red bugs, or chiggers. We sit on a decaying log in the woods that is home to the almost invisible creatures and end up with red polka-dotted bottoms.

We eat fruit and vegetables that may be coated with insecticide residue. Food that should be kept chilled, such as picnic fare like deviled eggs, can go bad quickly in 90-degree-plus  weather.

Nature has made summer a happy, carefree time indeed in Columbus County.

But nature has two faces.