Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University and an associate professor of emergency medicine, joined WNYC host David Furst on "All Things Considered" to talk about how kids, parents and everyone else can protect themselves during the heat wave.
So caregivers need to be very vigilant in terms of watching them, especially if they're playing outdoors — although I would recommend that parents only bring their kids to play in a shaded area such as a park. One of the big risks on days like we're about to experience is heatstroke. What exactly is heatstroke?Heatstroke happens when your body literally exhausts all the ways that it knows how to cool itself. It can't sweat anymore. You can't breathe any faster. The body just basically succumbs to the heat.
This year, a lot of New Yorkers are realizing that it's not just the heat and the temperature that they need to monitor on a hot summer day. It's also the air quality.What we see is that high temperatures actually increase the formation of ground-level ozone. Being in pools is a good idea. Being in the pool can keep you cool. But again, supervising kids who are in pools is very important — making sure they're resting frequently, that they're drinking plenty of water and that you have good supervision.