Firefighter Tim has important reminders about burn prevention
Make safety a top priority for your family this year! It’s the 30th anniversary of National Burn Awareness week, which begins today and runs through Feb. 7. National Burn Awareness week was developed to help promote burn awareness and prevention among general public as well as high risk groups like children and and older adults. This year’s message is Scald Prevention.
Firefighter Tim Griffin, with the Carmel Fire Dept., is helping keep us aware of the dangers of scalding burns. He says in 2013, an estimated 68,536 scald burn injuries were seen in the hospital emergency departments, in the us 15,588(23%) occurred to children under the age of 4 or younger. A vast majority (80-95%) of scald burns are related related cooking with, drinking, and serving hot liquids. Another common scald burn is from setting your hot water heater to high it is recommended to set a hot water heater at 120 degrees F.Some of the common factors that contribute to Scald burns in children are:
-Lack of adequate supervision
-Failure to recognize or identify scald dangers
-Giving Children too much responsibilitySome ways to prevent Scald burns:
-Set hot water heaters to 120 degrees F.
-Use thermometer to test water coming out of bath water tap
-Run your hand through bath tub to test water for hot spots
-Use back burners and turn pot handles towards the back of stove out of reach of children
-Use oven mitts when cooking or handling hot food or liquids
-Stir food cooked in a microwave before serving it
-Keep hot drinks away from edge of tables
-Use a travel mug when drinking hot liquids
-Never hold a child when you have a hot drink in your hand or when you are cooking
Along with scald burns, there are many other ways to be burned you should discuss these with you children also, such as never play with matches or lighters, keep curling iron and flat irons out of children’s reach. Make sure your cleaning supplies are in a secure place because some of these can cause chemical burns. And as always, please remember to be safe.
You can find more info Carmel Fire Dept. face book or their Twitter accounts @CFD911runs or @Carmelfiredept.