Burn prevention -1

Dear Burn Surgeon,Can you please tell me about the first aid for burns and how to avoid burns in general?
Susan A.
California.

Thank you Ms Susan for your question. There are two issues related to your question.



1. Prevention of burns in general.
2. First aid treatment of burns.

I shall address prevention of burns in general in this blog.

One of the most important aspects of prevention is ‘burn awareness ‘. Anything which is hot, which carries electricity, or is chemical in nature can cause burn. Your antennas must sense the danger as you carry on with your daily routines. When you enter the kitchen, cooking gas is the imminent danger. Keep children out of the kitchen. (See answer to question 1 in my previous blog for more information- Burns in kitchen). Avoid wearing loose and flammable clothing while cooking. Most longeries are highly inflammable and you stand the risk of the ‘fire’ falling in love with you and engulfing you. If you suspect a cooking gas leak, tighten all gas valves and open the windows. Avoid smoking, striking a match or putting an electric switch on as any spark will set the gas aflame and blow you out of the roof.Gas cylinders are potential time bombs in the kitchen and gas leak detectors can be of great help to detect leaks and control them.
Keeping a fire extinguisher in the kitchen is a good idea in case of a fire so is the smoke alarm or fire alarm. While using the microwave do not put in metal or food items that can explode like eggs or brinjals (also avoid plastics as they release toxic dioxins). Use pan handlers, safety gloves and hooks to handle hot utensils and avoid burns. While cooking it will be prudent to keep the pan handles away from edge if the cooking range as well as the other gas burners. Avoid storing anything or putting up shelves above the cooking range , so as to avoid burns while trying to reach them. Curtains in the kitchen or hanging towels can be dangerous particularly if they are close to the cooking range.

When you spread out lunch or dinner do not leave any hot stuff like soups etc unattended, your child will overturn it and get burnt while you are away. Always check the temperature of food made ready to feed your kids especially infants and toddlers (a thermometer will help).

While ironing realizes that your child can touch the hot iron and have a contact burn. Keep the hot iron out of reach of children. When you see your child playing with a lighter or match sticks- beware tomorrow he may light up the barn or set the house on fire or get burnt himself. Fire Crackers or fireworks are dangerous and if you have to burst a few crackers select the once which are really safe and always keep children under supervision.Rockets are dangerous and a misdirected one can cause havoc.

When your car radiator is over heated beware you might suffer severe scalds from hot radiator water; wait till it cools before you tinker with it. You shouldn’t expect a cold shower when you open a hot radiator lid. Candle lights are great and romantic but often are a source of fire in the house, especially if your child is inquisitive and decides to play with it. The bath is a place of relaxation after a hard day work but can cause burns if you are not careful especially in winter. Shower safe devices and tap devices which will let you monitor the temperature are helpful. Infants are unable to voice themselves and it is our responsibility to see that they don’t get burns when we wash or bathe them. If you are a diabetic or epileptic be careful in the bath as you may lose consciousness and suffer burns.

The bed room is relatively safe but if you decide to smoke or have hot coffee in bed, beware you will either light up your life or tip your coffee and burn your “main part”. Barbeques are exciting but keep children away and be careful while pouring petrol and lighting liquids over the coal. The guest won’t like to see you barbequed!! If you have chemicals in the house like drain cleaners, oven cleaners, acids or alkalis, beware you or your family can suffer chemical burns. Keep them safely out of reach of children and use them carefully. Avoid contact with eyes and hands and avoid inhaling them. The beach is a great place and basking in the sun can be good for your tan but beware sun tan can end in sunburns; limit your exposure and use a sunscreen with a good SPF.

Children in school beware- laboratories are places where chemical burns and fires occur, so be careful with your experiments. Safety first!

All electrical devices in the house – TV, video, radio, satellite receiver, computer, microwave, electric cooker and others are potential source of electrical burns. Earthing should be provided wherever needed, bare wires should be secured and plug points should be safe. Children should be kept away from all these devices. Warming milk bottles in the microwave ovens can be a source of infant burns and you must make sure of the temperature before feeding your child.

Gas leak detectors, smoke detector and fire alarms are of great help and should be installed in all homes. Every house, school, colleges, office or any establishment must have an ‘escape plan’ ready so that the inmates know how to escape in case of fire. Regular drills must be organized so that ‘fire escape’ becomes a natural instinct that overcomes the ‘fear factor ’.

I have found some great resources on the net which I have included as links for burn prevention on your right.

Along with ‘burn awareness’ a bit of “paranoia and a dash of obsession” will go a long way in preventing burns. This Christmas let us serve some 'burn awareness' along with our Christmas cakes.

wishing you all merry christmas +!!!!

Cooking gas fires and burn awareness

Decades ago we entered the ‘space age’, but on the burn front we are still in the ‘stone Age’ especially in the developing and underdeveloped countries. Our forefathers discovered flint, we discovered petroleum, and natural gas- packed it and marketed it, but did we make it safe to use?

Not really!!+
Every year thousands of children, wives, husbands, fathers and mothers get burnt from cooking gas fires. The most common cause of fire is from a gas leak which catches fire from any source. Thousands are disfigured, mentally destroyed and physically handicapped from burn and undergo severe pain and suffering during years of rehabilitation.

We spend millions trying to make cars run faster, while our roads get smaller and congested as the number of cars on the road increase every year.

Is this logical??

The advent of globalization has its benefits. But price wars on products have led companies to make cheaper products, ultimately compromising on quality. We now use substandard products be it clothing that catches fire or electric wires that burn when the load increase. This trend must stop; quality must be standardized and not compromised if burn injuries and others are to be prevented. Companies involved in this field have a moral responsibility to make their product safe or at least support researches to find ways to make their products safe.

New technologies that will help to reduce burn accidents will need to be developed. We should install Gas leak detectors, smoke detectors and fire detectors in every house or place that use gas for cooking to help reduce the incidence of burns from cooking gas fire.

‘National burn day’ must become an ‘international burn day’. Schools, colleges, universities, shops, companies and all non-essential activities must stop on this day. Each and every individual must realize how burns occur and how it can be prevented.

Political games must rest for this day and for once politicians must join hands and minds and work on burn prevention and burn management strategies. On this day, the senate, the congress, the governors, all politicians and President Obama himself should talk and work only on burns. Burn awareness must culminate in a ‘burn awakening’.

If this is a dream, O God- please let it come true!

asktheburnsurgeon@yahoo.com