Volume 13, Number 4: July 2005
Summer Safety
Long sunny days and school's end combine for a lot of healthy activity. That's good, as long as we remember the combination also calls for safety. Hot weather, pools, and more free time should be fun, not fatal.
Hot Cars
Neither children nor pets should ever be left in a parked or locked car, even with the windows cracked. Permanent injury or death can occur. Here's why:
- On an 85-degree day, the car's inside temperature can reach 102 degrees in 10 minutes and 120 degrees in 30 minutes. On hot and humid days in direct sunlight, the temperature can rise more than 30 degrees per minute. Even on mild days, temperatures can increase quickly to dangerous levels.
- A child's core body temperature rises 3-5 times faster than an adult's. Pets' bodies are much less efficient at cooling than are people's.
- Call 911 if a child or animal shows heat stress in a car. Children's symptoms include weakness dizziness, slow pulse, and clammy skin. An animal may pant, vomit, stagger, and have a rapid pulse and red-purple tongue. Apply cool, not cold, water in the shade.
Children also get in danger all by themselves, by crawling into unlocked cars and getting trapped. One-third of children's heat-related deaths in 2000 occurred this way. Don't think your own driveway is safe because it's home.
- When the car is empty, especially in the driveway or at the curb, always lock car doors and trunks.
- Teach older children to disable the driver's door locks if they become entrapped.
Cool Pools
Swimming pools are incredibly refreshing in the summer, but children can drown in inches of water and in minutes. More than half of drownings or dangerous submersions happen in less than five minutes, with a parent present, at the child's or a relative's home. Vigilance is absolutely necessary. Just think how quickly an adventurous toddler's motor skills change. You may not realize Junior can get across the patio so fast.
- Fence your pool, separating it from the house. Use self-closing, self-latching gates with latches above kid-height. A motorized pool safety cover is a backup option.
- Never leave a child alone in or near a pool. Anyone watching the child should know CPR.
- Keep rescue equipment (a pole or life preserver) by the pool.
- Remove toys from the pool after swimming, so that kids don't reach for them.
Vulnerable Spinal Cords
More than 250,000 people will have a spinal cord injury this year (neck or spine); more than 11,000 people will be paralyzed from it. Simple protective behavior could prevent so many of these tragedies, which increase in the summer.
A campaign of the Loyola University Health System puts it this way: Think ahead B 4 U dive, bike, skate, or drive. If you teach your children (and yourself) fundamentals of spine safety, "B 4 U" can become a family code word to be careful. At www.luhs.org/b4u, you'll find excellent tips relating to many activities (trampolines and playgrounds, for example), but the three most basic rules are:
- Put on a helmet B 4 U bike or skate.
- Buckle your seat belt B 4 U drive or ride.
- Check that water is 9 feet deep B 4 U dive.
Water fun is infectious, but that doesn't mean anything goes, even for good swimmers. Teach your children:
- Not to jump on someone in the water.
- Not to push anyone into the water.
- To enter a new body of water feet firstwalk in.
- To remember that water depth may vary and that rocks or debris may be hidden. Dive into a spot only when you're sure it is deep enough and open.