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MD Summer Safety Guide: Swimming, Sun, Roads, Lakes, Hot Cars, Snakes

It's time to break out the flip-flops and prepare for a fun summer in Maryland, but do so with these safety tips in mind. The MD Summer Safety Guide offers a variety of safety tips to help people avoid swimming, road swimming, swimming, fishing, hiking, and other activities. These tips include avoiding exposure to the sun, avoiding sun exposure and avoiding eye diseases such as macular degeneration or cataracts, as well as long exposure to ultraviolet rays. The CDC estimates that 4,000 people die a year in unintentional drownings and 8,000 survive. Snakes are a leading cause of death in children ages 1-4, and among children ages 5-14, it is the second leading cause for death after motor vehicle crashes. Don't drink while you're in the water, and ensure that everyone in the boat wears a life jacket when it is in the pool or at the beach. If you're spending the summer somewhere else, you should know about the 10 deadliest snakes in North America, including the cottonmouth, the timber rattlesnake, copperhead, and the tiger rattles nake.

MD Summer Safety Guide: Swimming, Sun, Roads, Lakes, Hot Cars, Snakes

Published : 10 months ago by Deb Belt in Health

Prolonged exposure to the sun can also cause photokeratitis, a painful, temporary condition caused by exposure to ultraviolet rays. It’s a bit like a sunburn, except that it affects the corneas of your eyes instead of your skin. Prolonged exposure can also cause eye diseases such as macular degeneration or cataracts.

Drowning is a leading cause of death in children ages 1-4, and among children ages 5-14, it’s the second leading cause of death after motor vehicle crashes, according to the CDC.

• Related: 2023 National Lifeguard Shortage ‘As Bad Or Worse’ Than Last Year It’s not just kids who are at risk, though. The CDC says 4,000 people die a year in unintentional drownings, an average of 11 a day, and 8,000 people, an average of 22 a day, survive drowning. About 40 percent of drownings treated at emergency rooms require hospitalizations or transfers for further care for injuries that can range to severe with brain damage or long-term disability

• Know what drowning looks like — and what it doesn’t look like. It doesn't look at all like the dramatic scenarios depicted on television and in the movies. Real-life drowning happens quietly, without flailing arms and frantic calls for help. People can't simply stop drowning long enough to take in a breath of air and call for help. The human body isn't built that way.

• Make sure gates to private pools are secure and kids can’t access or unlock them.

• Make sure kids are supervised at all times — and no looking down at the cellphone the entire time they’re in the pool or at the beach.

• Enroll your kids in swimming lessons (and, with a national lifeguard shortage, encourage advanced swimmers to earn their certification).

• Everyone in the boat wears a life jacket — no exceptions.

• Don’t drink while you’re in the water. According to the CDC, 70 percent of all deaths associated with water recreation involve alcohol, and 1 in 5 are boating deaths. Snakes In Lakes And Other Places If you’re swimming in a lake, hiking in the woods or just working in your garden, you can reliably count on a snake being nearby. About 8,000 people are bitten by snakes every year, according to the CDC. Most snakes are harmless, but even those bites can cause an infection or allergic reaction. Poisonous snakes to worry about in Maryland are two species of venomous snakes out of the 27 snake species in the state. The two with medically significant venom are the copperhead and the timber rattlesnake, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

• Related: 2 Snakes To Know On Your Walks, Jogs And Hikes Around MD If you’re spending the summer somewhere else, you should know about the 10 deadliest snakes in North America:

• The cottonmouth, which likes to hide in water throughout the Southeast and in the coastal plains north to Virginia.

• The timber rattlesnake, found from eastern Kansas, Texas, Iowa and central Wisconsin to Georgia, the Carolinas, West Virginia, western Virginia, Pennsylvania and New England.

• The black diamond rattlesnake, found widely across the western half of North America, from British Columbia to northern Mexico.

• The tiger rattlesnake, found along the Arizona-Mexico border.

• The copperhead, found throughout the eastern and central United States.

• The Eastern coral snake, found throughout the Southeast.

• The Western diamondback rattlesnake, found throughout the Southwest.

• The Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (the biggest venomous snake in North America), found in the pinelands of Florida, the coastal plains of North Carolina and southern Mississippi through eastern Louisiana.

• The prairie rattlesnake, found in the Great Plains from Canada to Mexico.

• The Mojave rattlesnake (the most venomous rattlesnake in the world), found in the desert Southwest

• Be skeptical of consumer snakebite kits, according to the Snakebite Foundation, an international group of physicians, paramedics and scientists who treat snakebite patients.

• Before you venture go into the woods or some other place where snakes may be, make sure you have a plan on how to get emergency medical help — a good idea in any case. And make sure you have a fully stocked first aid kit.

• While you’re waiting for medical help, lay or sit the person down, positing them, so the bite is below the level of the heart; wash the wound with warm, soapy water; and cover the bite with a clean, dry dressing from your Pack your defensive driving skills with everything else if you’re heading out on a road trip — or just commuting to work or running errands around town. About 97 percent of summer trips are by car, according to AAA. It’s unrealistic to expect all motorists will be on their best behavior, though. Early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicate fatal crashes in warm-weather months were down in 2022, compared to the 2020 pandemic spike and increases in 2021. The motor vehicle fatalities in Maryland decreased by 0.7 percent from 561 in 2021 to 557 in 2022, according to the estimates.

• Don’t drink and drive. Drunken driving makes the summer season one of the most dangerous on the nation’s highways, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, whose data shows more drunken drivers involved in fatal crashes during May, June and July than any other time of the year.

• Plan ahead for a safe ride home with a sober driver — even if you’ve only had one drink. A sober driver is one who hasn’t had anything to drink — not the one who has had the least to drink.

• If you’re hosting a party, make sure designated drivers have plenty of non-alcoholic beverages. Don’t let your friends drive drunk. Take away their keys, and make arrangements for them to get home safely or put them up for the night.

• If you see a drunken driver on the road, pull over and call 911. Another important vehicle safety reminder: Cars can heat up quickly, even on mild days, becoming deadly in little as 10 minutes. As of May 23, 2023, at least 943 children have died of pediatric vehicular heat stroke because they were either forgotten or left in locked cars, or because they wandered into them during play. On average, 38 kids a year die in hot cars. This year, as of May 23, four kids have died in hot cars. Since 1998, 14 kids in Maryland have died of vehicular heat stroke because they were left in hot cars.

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