“Car-Baked Cookie” campaign highlights dangers of leaving kids locked in cars

AW Rostamani Group, parent company for one of the Nissan dealers in the UAE, have started a campaign to highlight the dangers of heat-buildup for children left in parked cars. Called ‘Car Baked Cookies’, the campaign highlights the temperatures a car’s interior can reach when parked in direct sunlight, by cooking biscuits on the dashboard. They claim it can reach as high as 80° Celsius in there. Their tagline is ‘If it’s hot enough to bake, it’s hot enough to cause death’.

Car Baked Cookie demonstrations and cookie giveaways are planned after Ramadan to act as an ongoing reminder of the campaign’s message, with calls to pledge your support via carbaked.com, or the #CarBaked Twitter hash tag, if you swing that way. They ask that you call the police if you see a child locked in a car. Truth be told, legally you cannot do anything more.

Children are much more susceptible to temperature changes than adults as their smaller bodies heat and cool much more quickly. In our region, heat is the most obvious danger and the environment of an uncooled car, which rapidly increases in temperature is one which we should all be aware of as potentially life-threatening to children. The brain and major organs can be damaged within 10 minutes once a child’s core temperature exceeds 40° Celsius while death is a real risk if it rises just a couple of degrees more.

While it may seem obvious, these things are still happening as ignorant people leave their kids in cars alone with the a/c off. An unventilated vehicle interior can apparently be 30° Celsius above the outside temperature, so with an outside temperature of 50° Celsius, a car’s interior could hit 80° Celsius.

If you see an unattended child in a car, call Dubai Police on 901. If you are concerned an unattended child in a car is in grave danger, call Dubai Police on 999.