SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — On a hot and sunny day, most people thinking about the danger of burns will have their focus on sunburns. This is with good reason, as sunburns can be quite harmful and are one of the most common types of burn experienced. However, another type of burn can also be a danger: contact burns.
Contact burns are caused by contact between a heated object and the human body.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, some sun-heated surfaces such as hot pavement can burn human skin. The U.K. based Burn Centre Care states that prolonged contact with a temperature of above 109°F can result in burns, while temperatures above 176°F can result in a burn in under a second.
According to Johns Manville, a roofing and construction manufacturing company, reversible damage can occur from surfaces beginning at around 111°F. Irreversible damage, according to their chart, begins to be a possibility when a surface reaches 162°F.
Between 9:55 a.m. and 10:25 a.m. on Monday morning, KELOLAND News set out in the area surrounding the studio with a thermal gun to measure the temperature of common surfaces. At that time, the temperature was about 87°F, with a feel-like temp of 93°F.
Later on, between 3:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and with the temperature now at 98°F with a feel like temp of 105°F, we revisited these sites to see how much the temperatures of the surfaces had risen.
The lowest recorded temperatures came in the morning, where a plastic playground slide and coated metal playset floor both registered 85°F in the shade. The lowest temperature recorded in the afternoon was portion of shaded brick sidewalk.
The hottest temperature found in the morning was a surprise; a woodchip covered flowerbed in the sun, which registered a temp of 124°F. This was followed by the plastic playground slide and a rubber swing, both at 122°F. The hottest temperature of the day easily blew past the rest. The black dashboard of a reporter’s car clocked a temp of 184°F in the afternoon sun.
According to Avera’s Clinical VP of Emergency Medicine Jared Friedman, the exact temperature at which skin will burn depends on the individual, as the skin of babies, children and the elderly can be much more sensitive to temperature than that of the average adult.
“We put burns into multiple categories,” said Friedman “First being first degree burn, which creates a lot of redness — then there’s second degree burns and generally that is redness plus forming of blisters — and then we’ll get into third degree burns where there is deep tissue involvement.”
Friedman says that generally contact burns result in first and second degree burns, rarely third degree burns.
To mitigate the risk of contact burns, especially to kids, Friedman recommends checking playground equipment and other surfaces before children make contact with them. This, he says, can be done by touching the surface with the back of your hand.
