MIDLAND, Texas — High heat can be extremely dangerous to different groups of people throughout the summer months.
"We know that about 30 deaths per year occurs inside cars for children left in cars generally," said Dr. Perry Sheffield of Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Temperatures in cars can get deadly hot when an outside temperature is under 70 degrees Fahrenheit."
The summer months also show an increase in ER visits from children and some of this is from the heat.
"A warm season in emergency department visits to us children's hospitals we saw that, estimated that maybe as much as 11% increase in emergency department visits in the summer months were attributable to hotter temperatures," Sheffield said. "These could include short term effects, if you get exposed on a hot day you may get a little bit of a stomachache or learning issues because you cant take in information as easily which could effect test scores."
It's important that if you work outside that you take care of yourself.
"One of the solutions is encouraging more frequent water during hot periods, encouraging workers to sit down and take a few minutes periodically to make sure their heat exposure is reduced, for people that work outside, providing some sort of shade where they can rest during the hottest parts of the day," said Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma with Boston University School of Public Health. "Time and time again we see that the social ties that people have is one of the best protections they have against the adverse health effects of extreme heat so friends checking in on friends, neighbors checking in on neighbors making sure your loved ones are okay during these extreme heat waves."