suffer a stroke or seizure. Diabetics can also run into trouble because many have a neuropathic condition that interferes with heat sensation on the soles of their feet.
All of these scenarios have turned up at the UMC Lions Burn Care Center in Las Vegas, where Chestovich is an emergency physician. He is also an assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
In the July/August issue of the Journal of Burn Care & Research, Chestovich and his colleagues reported that the burn center treated 173 pavement-related burns between 2013 and 2017. About 14% of the cases involved additional injuries, sometimes from a car crash. The rest were stand-alone pavement burns.
More than 88% occurred after the thermometer hit 95 degrees, the findings showed. But risk really spiked once temperatures topped 105 degrees.
That’s because pavement is heat-absorbing, so a 110-degree day can