are conducted as fund-raisers for charity, notably the Special Olympics, however these events don't actually involve swimming, but rather running into the water and back out again. Cosmo Kramer briefly joins a New York polar bears club in the sitcom Seinfeld. The Russian immigrant professor Louis Sugarman of Little Falls, NY was the first American to become a famous ice swimmer in the 1890s. He attracted worldwide attention for his daily plunge in the Mohawk River, even when the thermometer hit , earning him the nickname "the human polar bear". The oldest ice swimming club in the United States is the Coney Island Polar Bear Club of Coney Island, New York, founded in 1903 by Bernarr MacFadden. The club organizes an annual polar plunge on New Year's Day as well as regular swims in the Atlantic Ocean every Sunday from November to April. Health risks Winter swimming can be dangerous to people who are not used to swimming in very cold water. After immersion in cold water the cold shock response will occur, causing an uncontrollable gasp for air. This is followed by hyperventilation, a longer period of more rapid breathing. The gasp for air can cause a person to ingest water, which leads to drowning. As blood in the limbs is cooled and returns to the heart, this can cause fibrillation and consequently cardiac arrest. The cold shock response and cardiac arrest are the most common causes of death related to cold water immersion. Winter swimming is not dangerous for healthy persons, but should be avoided by individuals with heart or respiratory diseases, high blood pressure and arrhythmia, as well as children and the elderly. Through conditioning, experienced winter swimmers have a greater resistance to effects of the cold shock response. Hypothermia poses a smaller risk. According to Tucker and Dugas, it takes more than approximately 30 minutes even in water until the body temperature drops low enough for hypothermia to occur. Many people would probably be able to survive for almost an hour. There is no consensus on these figures however; according to different estimates a person can survive for 45 minutes in water, but exhaustion or unconsciousness is expected to occur within 15 minutes. Consuming alcohol before winter swimming should be avoided because it speeds the onset and progression of hypothermia. Care should be taken when winter swimming in swimming pools and seas near the polar regions.