Experts sound the alarm on dangerously hot temperatures inside Toronto apartments

The window is wide open and a large fan is blasting at full speed inside Bernadette Mamo's living room, but there's no reprieve — even at 7:30 at night. 

"Even trying to clean around the house is very exhausting," said Mamo, who spoke to CBC Toronto from her Scarborough apartment last week, during Toronto's most recent heat wave. "You're sweating like crazy, profusely, and it's straining — very taxing."

Mamo has lived with her 86-year-old mother in the ground-floor rental unit for more than five decades. There is no air conditioning in the building, and on days like this, there are only so many ways to cope.

"We drink cold drinks," she said. "Showers — lots of showers. And when we can afford it, we go to the mall."

Mamo's unit is one of 10 Toronto apartments where a heat and humidity sensor was installed this summer as part of a national CBC News investigation monitoring temperatures inside Canadians' homes. In five cities across the country — Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montreal and Windsor — CBC News measured temperatures in a total of 49 apartments that had little or no air conditioning. Data was collected from late June until mid-August.

Eight out of the 10 Toronto households that were measured had readings of 26 C or higher — the maximum indoor temperature widely considered safe — the majority of the time. 

Experts are now sounding the alarm on the health impacts of non-stop high temperatures like these, and advocates are calling for changes such as a maximum temperature bylaw. 

The hottest temperature measured in Mamo's home this summer was on July 6, when the temperature hit 28.07 C. With the heat index, it felt like 31.20 C.

Mamo said she's tried to install air conditioning in the unit, but given the building's age, it blows all the fuses and she loses power.

She worries about the long-term impacts of the heat on her mother's health. 

"I worry about her getting heat stroke, even though she's not outside, because it does [exacerbate] everything: your health, your breathing, trying to focus," she said.

Mamo is far from alone: heat sensors show the hottest temperature inside Khalil Aldroubi's Scarborough apartment was 29.79 C on Aug. 16. More than half the readings from his apartment were above 26 C.

"We struggle as soon as we put our foot in the building," said Aldroubi, who lives in a three-bedroom apartment on the 21st floor with his wife and five children.

He has tried, unsuccessfully, to install air conditioning. The first A/C unit he tried damaged the floors of the apartment — which the building management said he'd be responsible for fixing at his own expense. The second was a window unit, but he says the building didn't allow him to install the bracket needed to hold it in place.