What values will the air temperature reach in a heated car and what body temperature will a person locked in it have? It is possible to estimate these values with the calculator created by Łukasz Białek, MD, and Dr. Dominik Czernia from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
The Polish Academy of Sciences reminds about the possibility of using the calculator on social media.
For example: with a cloudless sky and an air temperature of 30 degrees C, in a light-coloured closed car, the air temperature can reach 41-46 degrees C after 20 minutes, and after 35 minutes - even over 46 degrees C (for a dark-coloured car, such temperatures are reached after 15 and 25 minutes, respectively).
After 25 minutes spent in such a hot (bright) car, the body temperature reaches 38 degrees Celsius, which may result in hyperthermia, overheating of the body. After more than an hour, with a body temperature of 40 degrees Celsius, there is a threat to life.
The authors of the calculator are Łukasz Białek, MD, and Dr. Dominik Czernia from the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The calculator is available at https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/car-heating
The authors of the solution remind that there are many scientific papers on the danger of leaving children and pets in parked cars on hot days. 'If you leave an animal or a person in a closed car, you expose them to the immediate threat of loss of health or even life', we read.
According to the statistics cited by the authors of the calculator, about 40 children die in hot cars in the United States every year; more than half of them are less than two years old.
PAP - Science in Poland
akp/ bar/ kap/
tr. RL
