Extreme Heat Risks for Children - Climate Central

Extreme Heat Risks for Children | Climate Central

Babies and younger children have difficulty regulating their core body temperature and can be more vulnerable to hot weather. Young children sweat less and acclimate to heat more slowly than adults. During outdoor sports or play, kids may ignore or miss symptoms of heat stress.

Heat illness symptoms can include headaches, nausea, cramps, or lethargy and may require urgent medical attention. Severe cases of heat stroke can cause organ damage or death.

Without effective measures to adapt to a warming world, children will experience worse health impacts –- including a potential increase in heat-related emergency room visits.

Heat impacts aren’t felt equally. Studies have shown that urban heat islands are more likely to be found in predominantly lower-income and non-white communities.

Future generations are likely to face accelerating change and intensifying risks — particularly from heat waves –- with continued warming. Ultimately, a commitment to rapid, sustained cuts to carbon pollution is the most impactful action to slow the rate of warming and set younger generations on a different path, toward a safer future.

Children are sensitive to climate change impacts

Children are still growing and developing. They spend more time playing outdoors and have less control over their surrounding environments. This makes them especially vulnerable to climate change stressors. Children also have less understanding of potential health risks from environmental exposures. And the effects of climate change experienced in childhood can have lifelong consequences on physical and mental health.

Climate Central’s series Climate Change and Children’s Health details how climate change affects kids. Read about how climate change is worsening the effects of extreme heat and seasonal allergies for children. Stay tuned for future topics about children’s health, including air quality changes and flooding risks.

LOCAL STORY ANGLES

Find summer temperature trends for your local area.

Climate Central’s 2024 Summer Package provides analysis of summer (June, July, and August) average temperature data in 241 U.S. locations during the last 54 years (1970-2023).

Map the influence of climate change on daily heat extremes in your area.

Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index system provides tools, data, custom maps, and local alerts to answer this question in real-time.

Check local temperature and heat risk forecasts.

HeatRisk is an interactive map tool from the National Weather Service, now available for the contiguous U.S. This color-numeric index shows current and forecast risk of daily local heat-related impacts.

See how extreme heat is affecting public health locally.

The CDC’s Heat and Health Tracker maps heat-related illnesses at the census tract level in real time. Use the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Heat Equity Mapper to explore the burden of extreme heat at the census tract level. Check the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services monthly Climate and Health Outlook for extreme heat outlooks in your region throughout the summer.

Learn more about how climate change impacts children’s health – now and in the future.

Rebecca Stearns, PhD, ATC Associate Professor and Chief Operating Officer, Korey Stringer Institute University of Connecticut Relevant expertise: exertional heat-related illnesses and heat stroke, sports and heat, hydration Contact: rebecca.stearns@uconn.edu(Best availability: June 17-19)

Caitlin Gould, DrPH, MPPA Environmental Policy Analyst EPA’s Climate Change Division Relevant expertise: climate change and health Media Contact: Shayla Powell, powell.shayla@epa.gov

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