During the summer months, the rise in temperature can leave us sweating, even with a breeze to help us cool down. We're lucky to have air conditioning available in our cars and our homes, if not some other way to cool down such as fans. Unfortunately, when the car is turned off, so is the air conditioning.
Many people who head to the grocery store or the bank or even just a friend's house leave their animals and their children in the car. What's wrong with a few minutes without air conditioning? While it might seem insignificant, a car sitting in 90 degree heat can reach over 100 degrees in as little as 5 minutes, as the video below illustrates.
Video via YouTube
In this PSA, Arizona Cardinals' Tyrann Mathieu sits in a car with no air conditioning to see how long he can withstand the rapid increase in temperature. He only lasted eight minutes, when the car had reached approximately 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
The video states, "Tyrann was able to open the door to escape the oven-like conditions. But dogs can't." And, often, neither can small children. Dogs cannot sweat to help cool down, and children's body temperatures can rise up to five times faster than an adult's. At 105 degrees, dogs' organs begin to fail. At 107 degrees, a child can die.
Leaving children or animals in cars while unattended is dangerous, especially during the summer months when heat plays a large role. Make sure to report any child or animal left in a car unattended, and do not leave the scene until the parent/owner or the police arrive to help. Thankfully, hot-car deaths are at an all time low in 2015.
Check out websites like noheatstroke.org and peta.org for more information on child and animal hot car deaths. Learn about your local legislature involving unattended children and animals in cars to see what you can do to help.
(Some information retrieved from NBC News)
