Study Finds 2002 a Safer Season for Football Players
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.
In what has turned out to be a pleasant surprise, no deaths from heatstroke occurred among young U.S. football players during the 2002 season, a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study shows.
The safer season was a surprise since 21 players died from heatstroke between 1995 and 2001, an average of three a year, said Dr. Frederick Mueller, professor and chair of exercise and sport science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences.
“We have been concerned because heat-related deaths are either entirely or almost entirely avoidable,” Mueller says. “Fatalities like these often meant someone forgot to emphasize or practice what we and others have been reminding coaches and trainers about for years. Players should get all the water they want in practice and have frequent cooling-off breaks to prevent these tragedies.”
