General Motors has developed a sensor and warning system to sound an alarm whenever a child in a car is in danger of heatstroke. The author notes that, since 1996, over 120 children, mostly under 3 years of age, have died of hyperthermia in parked vehicles. The article discusses how to determine if the temperature in an automobile is too hot for a child (utilizing, among other types of information, the surface area of the child relative to his/her weight); how tests were conducted to develop a warning system (use of healthy college student volunteers); and reminds readers that when it is 80 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car can reach well over 100 degrees.
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