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Caitlin Whyte: Welcome to Hally Healthcast, the wellness podcast from Hally Health, your partner in helping you live your healthiest life. Every episode on our podcast addresses a new topic important to your health and wellbeing, bringing in expert doctors, specialists, and other healthcare experts who offer advice and answer your most pressing questions.

Today's episode is all about summer safety. With summer in full swing, it's the perfect time to learn tips that'll keep you and your family safe. We'll talk about sun safety, protection against the heat, injury prevention and more. Here with us is Amy Rademaker. She's the Rural Health and Farm Safety Program Coordinator for the Carle Health System of Central Illinois.

Welcome, Miss Radamaker, and thank you so much for being with us today and sharing your knowledge. Now, let's begin. Summer is a time of being outdoors, having fun and tackling those good weather jobs and chores. It's quite easy to spend all day out in the sun. What advice do you have to protect ourselves, our skin, our eyes, and more from the sun's harmful UV rays?

Amy Rademaker: Sure. There are three basic things to consider when we're protecting our skin and eyes and our bodies in general. First, make sure you stay in the shade, would be a very simple one, you know, between the hours of 10:00 and 3:00 when the UV rays are the brightest; however, that's not always realistic. You know, there's still work to be done or you have a job that requires you to be outside. So the next step would be thinking about our proper clothing choices and then use of sunblock and Chapsticks. So let's explore that a little bit.

The clothing choices, obviously we don't want to wear black, those things that attract heat. But it's very ideal to wear long sleeves, so long sleeves, long pants. And I know that makes us hotter, but it really does protect us from the sun. I recommend a lightweight pair of cotton pants and a long sleeve shirt, but one that's lightweight. And they do make UV-rated clothing that you can purchase at a sporting goods store or online that help protect you against the sun. They do make us warmer, but we really need to protect ourselves.

And then finally, sunblock and Chapstick, and that's changed a lot over the course of the years. The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends a water-resistant, broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher. Now, that could also depend on family history, your complexion or medication, you may need to wear something stronger than that. We want to make sure that we apply it least 30 minutes before we go outside, so it has time to work with our skin and then reapply every two hours or immediately after swimming or a lot of sweating. And I know that's an inconvenience, but something we really need to do.

So then we also need to think about protecting our eyes, and the best way to do that is to have a good pair of sunglasses. And it's important when you go to buy your sunglasses, that you look for a little sticker on them that gives a UV rating, and a 100% UV rating is pretty common, but make sure that you check that sticker and make sure that you wear those sunglasses. And of course, we're talking about summer now, but we really need to wear them year round to protect our eyes. You can get an iris melanoma. Also, exposure to sun can affect having cataracts down the road.

Caitlin Whyte: Thank you so much. Such great information and advice. Now, along with its UV rays, the summer sun also brings hot temperatures all day long. What advice would you give people, young and old alike, about staying safe in the summer heat?

Amy Rademaker: So when we're thinking about summer heat, the first thing is thinking about hydration and proper hydration and what happens when we aren't properly hydrated. And I like to remind people that by the time that you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated. So we need to be drinking quite a bit. Actually, men should be drinking around three liters or 13 cups of water during the day. And for women, it's 2.7 liters or approximately nine cups of water. Now, that would be pretty much during a regular day. So imagine adding that extra sweat and so forth, we need to make sure that we're keeping ourselves hydrated. But it's important to remember, "If I'm thirsty, I'm already dehydrated."

However, there does come a point where you go into heat exhaustion and you still might be thirsty, but then all of a sudden you don't become thirsty. And that's another important time when we need to become concern, because you do go from that thirsty to not thirsty as we sweat and so forth. So it's very important that we stay hydrated.

Okay. So when we talk about heat exhaustion, heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which is a life-threatening condition that occurs when your core body temperature reaches 104 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. And at that point, we need immediate medical attention. So we have that body temperature, if we get over 104 degrees, that can lead to permanent damage of our brain or other organs in our body or even cause death.

Caitlin Whyte: Gosh. Well, thank you for that advice. Now, summer also means fun adventures and getting our outdoor jobs done. Kids love summer and adults do too. So now, let's talk about some of the safety tips we should keep in mind as we're embarking on all those fun outdoor activities and tasks. Let's start with something that many of us love to do, swimming. How can we stay safe at the pool or in the lake, at the beach?

Amy Rademaker: Yes, let's talk about that. So first and foremost, we need to make sure we have permission to be swimming wherever we're swimming. It's important for us to read signs. That's really important that we abide by those rules if there's signs posted that we have permission, and we know those. Obviously, for out at a pool deck, we don't want to be running. That can be a very dangerous, very slippery surface. We want to get in and out of the pool carefully. So that might include if you're thinking about diving. Some pools are not very deep. I mean, you need to make sure that you're entering a pool that is deep enough to support that dive, but very cautious entering and exiting also because it can be slippery.

Don't overdo it. Be realistic in what your abilities are, and maybe you want to swim a lengthier distance, start small and add to it. Do not overdo any swimming. Never, ever swim alone. We want a buddy system. So that way, if something does happen, we have somebody that can call for help immediately, pass out a life ring to try to bring you back in, anything like that. We need a buddy. Obviously, we don't want to be consuming alcohol, that really can impair our reaction time and get us distracted as well. So we want to make sure that we're fully alert. I think about that also with our cell phones, we need to be paying attention, especially to our kids that are in the pool. And learn proper technique. You know, if the person hasn't had swim lessons, it's a good thing to do. Even if you can tread water, if you can learn good technique in case you'd have to be in the water longer, that's really what important.

Caitlin Whyte: Absolutely. And now another fun summer activity back on land, how about biking? For those of us who love taking our bicycle out during the summer, what are some tips to stay safe?

Amy Rademaker: Okay. So biking, probably one of the first things we want to talk about is the importance of wearing a helmet. Your brain is as soft as Jell-O. So if you think about the only thing that's protecting your brain is skin and skull, and then it's protecting jello, you can't put that Jell-O back together. So it's really important that we wear a proper fitted helmet each and every time we go out to bike. And it doesn't matter how good of a biker you are, the bike could fail. Some thing could come along and affect your ability to stay upright. So it's really important that we wear helmets first and foremost.

Make sure you have a bike that's appropriate size for you. Don't ride something that's too big or too small, that's important. Not wearing flip flops. I know in the summer, sandals and flip-flops are easy to grab a hold of and go outside, but they can get caught in the spokes and the chain, definitely a very dangerous situation. So we don't want to do that. Wear proper clothing. Especially when we're in the evenings, we want to wear a bright-colored clothing. We want to make sure we have bike reflectors that are working. Flashing lights even are very good. And the one thing that people really get stuck on when traveling on the roads, if you are traveling on bike, you want to be driving with the traffic. If you're walking, you walk against traffic. But when you're biking, you're on the same side of the road as a car is. So some things to keep in mind with that.

Caitlin Whyte: And another common vehicle we use a lot more in the summer are ATVs or all-terrain vehicles. Whether we're using them for fun or work, especially on a farm, we need to know how dangerous they can be. So how can we best ride these safely?

Amy Rademaker: Okay. So with ATVs, we want to make sure that we are riding the right size and it's easy for our family to buy an ATV and just anticipate that everybody can drive that one ATV. But a youth cannot drive an adult ATV. One, because of the sheer size and the ability to maneuver it and second is the speed and the cognitive ability of youth. So their brains aren't developed enough to be able to respond the same as adults. So we do need to make sure that we're using the appropriate size of ATV.

We don't want to be a second riders or have second riders. They're not designed for that. And the center of gravity changes when we have an additional person or let's say a water tank on the back of the ATV. It's really important to know that your center of gravity shifts with those. Just like with a bike, we need to wear a helmet. Again, that's the most important thing that we have to protect, and very easy with just a simple helmet that's fitted appropriately. And then make sure you have permission to ride where you're riding your ATV. They're designed for gravel and dirt. They're not designed for hard pavement, and we need to also have that permission to be where we're going. And with bike and ATV, somebody needs to know where we're going and when we're coming back. Ideally, you have a buddy with you. But if you can't, you need to be telling people where you're going and what path are you taking.

Caitlin Whyte: Very important information. Let's move back to the home. Similarly, can you give us some tips for using mowers and other lawn equipment? These can get dangerous real fast, and I'd love to hear some safety tips for those

Amy Rademaker: Yup. So when we're thinking about lawn mowers, it's important I think to first consider who we're having mow the lawn. If it's a youth, we really need to look at that manual and make sure that it's age appropriate. We don't want them on something, if it's riding a lawn mower and they're too young for it. Or even a push mower, do they have the ability? What's the recommendation based on the lawnmower?

So it's important for people to remember to fill lawn mowers with gasoline outside. We don't want to be doing that inside. We want to make sure that all the safety features are on. So at the lever, usually you need to hold a bar and another release bar. Make sure that when you release it or somebody were to let go that the blades would stop running. So make sure of safety features. Same way with riding lawnmowers. We want to make sure that we have all the guards and everything in place.

With a riding lawn mower, we want to make sure we have that roll bar or a roll-over protection structure is in the upright position and we're wearing a seatbelt. We can turn those lawnmowers over very easily. And that roll bar with a seatbelt is very effective in preventing crushing injuries, pinning injuries. It's just a real important piece that a lot of people fail to do. And then when we think about lawn mowers, we also need to think about proper foot wear. And also weed eaters, again, another time where we shouldn't be wearing sandals or flip flops. We need good protective shoes, shoe strings tied, all of that in place. We don't want to have those cutting injuries.

Caitlin Whyte: On that note, I think we all know how dangerous certain injuries can be when it comes to things like lawn equipment, big stuff like ATVs. But you mentioned earlier that we can forget about our eyes during the summer and even just year round. Can you tell us a bit about common eye injuries that we see this season and how to avoid those?

Amy Rademaker: Those UV protective sunglasses are important, but you also can get them and should be wearing UV protective safety goggles or safety glasses. A lot of times with your ATV, if you have a shield on it, it is UV rated, but very important to protect ourselves, especially with debris, and lawnmowers and ATVs, something we didn't cover beyond the sun. But anyway, that's very important. We don't want to have any projectiles. Things can fly over a hundred feet in a matter of seconds. So you also want to make sure that your kids aren't outside if you're running a weed eater or a lawn mower, because they can become injured as well riding on the lawnmower or being in that lawn.

If we went into specifics of eye injuries, you've got sun exposure, you've got debris exposure, you could have puncture wounds. The list could go on and on. And plus you also have seasonal allergies that can affect your eyes. So the best thing would be to consider our UV protective sunglasses and our UV protective safety glasses.

Caitlin Whyte: Gotcha. Okay. And one more, probably the most important question of our conversation. You know, if we're out having fun or working this summer and any type of injury or emergency happens, what should we do? Who should we call for help? And then what should we do as we're waiting for that help to arrive?

Amy Rademaker: Sure. Well, first you want to make sure that the scene is safe for you to even be in it. So if you see somebody in distress, you need to first and foremost think about your own safety, because we don't need two people injured or killed in an event. If somebody's been injured or fallen or something, and we think that there could potentially be some type of spinal injury, we want to encourage them not to move. And that's one of the first things we want to do, is to make sure that we can get up and we can move. But we want to make sure that everybody stays still. And we want to call for help immediately, so call 911.

It's really important for us to remember and know where we are at all times. I even think about this on interstates. We're traveling between one point and another, but do we pay any attention to really where we are if we'd have to call 911. So that's really important. There's so many different things that can happen, but getting help immediately really is the most important piece. If there's something that's bleeding that we're trying to control and we're trying to control it before help arrives and provide that first aid, compressing an injury is the most important piece to stopping a bleed and just continue to press and hold and not check on it. Wait for emergency help to arrive

Caitlin Whyte: Well, such important information and advice. It's so easy to get caught up in having fun and being on vacation, and then all of a sudden you're just hot and burnt and so many other things could go wrong if we're not careful. Ms. Rademaker, you've been such a pleasure to have on our podcast. And again, thank you so much for joining us and for all that you do every day at Carle Health and beyond, helping so many people and families throughout our communities. That concludes today's Hally Healthcast. Tune in next time as we tackle yet another topic important for your health and wellbeing. And remember Hally Health is your partner in helping you live your healthiest life. Visit Hally.com, that's H-A-L-L-Y.com, for resources, information, tips, and much more. Let us help keep you and your family healthy and well. Thanks for listening. We hope you tune in again.