"There is no safe length of time to leave a child alone in a car”, says Kelley Parris- Barnes, Director of Alabama Department of Child Abuse Prevention. “Babies and small children have a very immature respiratory system, and do not have the same ability to withstand heat as adults do. Their organs shut down faster, dehydration sets in rapidly, and it can quickly become an unintentional tragedy." 

Experts say that within the first 5 minutes, the temperature in an enclosed vehicle will raise an average of 20 degrees. Within 30 minutes, the heat can spike as high as 40 degrees.

A new study reveals that 90 percent of Americans who are addicted to tobacco, alcohol or other substances started smoking, drinking or using drugs before they were 18 years old.

The study also found that one-quarter of Americans who began using any addictive substance before age 18 are addicted, compared with one in 25 Americans who started using an addictive substance when they were 21 or older.

And nearly half of American high school students now smoke, drink or use other drugs, according to the researchers at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

They said their findings show that adolescence is the most important period of life for the start of substance abuse and its consequences.

The nation's leading group of pediatricians is calling for a ban on all junk food and fast food ads during children's television shows as a means of slowing the rising tide of obesity among young people.

In a policy statement published in the July issue of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) also asks Congress, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission to eliminate junk food and fast food ads on cell phones and other media, as well as to prohibit companies that make such products from paying to have their products featured in movies.

"Given that we are smack in the midst of an epidemic of child and adolescent obesity, it doesn't seem like all that bad an idea," said Dr. Victor Strasburger, lead author of the statement.