Burns can be one of the most painful types of personal injury. The best way to deal with them of course is to prevent them happening in the first place. Basic safety precautions in the home and workplace can do a lot to reduce the risk of burns occurring.
Kitchens and bathrooms are the most burn prone areas of the home. Reduce risk by:
- Turning your hot water temperature down. The recommended level especially if you have children is 120_F (49_C). At this level it would take 10 minutes to burn a child’s hand.
- Always test the temperature of bath or shower water with your hand before getting in, particularly for children.
- Always keep pot handles facing inwards. Not only can children grab hold of them and pull them down, but adults can catch their clothes on them, jumping cats and dogs may not see them and knock them over too.
- Never leave anything cooking unattended.
- Use pot mitts when handling hot plates and food. Often things don’t feel too hot when you first touch, but by the time you get that dish to the table it will be burning.
- If removing plastic wrap or any kind of lid, be cautious of steam burns. Always remove a lid or any covering away from yourself.
Barbeques are another major area of burn risk. Help prevent risk by:
- Keeping your BBQ clean. Old drippings and food bits can catch fire easily.
- Never leave a barbeque unattended, especially if children are around.
- If you are using gas, make sure the cylinder is checked regularly and turned off after use.
- Never ever use accelerants such as gasoline or turpentine to try to start a barbeque. You not only run the risk of burns but of a major fire.
- Use good long handled tools to handle cooking food and oven mitts for moving dishes.
Just as gas barbeques should be checked regularly, so should any heaters you have in your home. If you have an open fire or use heaters always be sure to keep a guard around them. This is absolutely essential if you have children in the home.
If you or another person should catch on fire the flame needs to be smothered. Stop, drop and roll. Roll on the ground; roll in a blanket if available.
Treating burns
When burns do occur they need to be treated quickly.
Any burn from whatever cause needs immediate treatment. Ten minutes under running cold water. If running water is not available then any cold water will do. Ten minutes is the best time for two reasons. Firstly burning will be continuing under the skin and it can take that full ten minutes to reach and stop further damage. If you leave the water running longer than ten minutes it can start to destroy the skin and underlying tissue.
For any burn that covers a skin surface larger than the circle made by putting your thumb and first finger together should be seen by a doctor. For extensive burns call an ambulance immediately!
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