Heat seen risking Conn nursing home residents

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Advocates say this week's heat wave highlights a lack of regulations in Connecticut for temperature settings at nursing homes as residents live in sweltering conditions.

Advocates for nursing home residents say the heat that reached 100 degrees two days in a row shows there is a health danger that the state is ignoring.

In 2003, the legislature passed a law requiring the state Department of Public Health to adopt recommendations for minimum and maximum temperatures for areas within nursing homes and rest homes.

The agency has not yet recommended a maximum temperature.

Bill Gerrish, the agency's spokesman, says there is no cooling temperature that a facility would be required to maintain because there would be no way to maintain it and no way to enforce it.

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Information from: The Hartford Courant