Fire and Burn Injury Interventions

Interventions to Prevent Contact Burns

Background

Toddlers, particularly children under 2 years of age are most at risk for contact burns. Contact burns are usually due to hot stoves (electric, wood, coal burning), heaters and irons. The data from the Harstad Injury Prevention Study³³  indicate that 64.3% of hospitalized burn injuries resulted from scalds, 31.4% were contact burns and 4.3% due to open flames. Two-thirds of the patients were under 2 years of age and 66% were male. This is the only study which has attempted to reduce this class of burns in a systematic fashion (See section on multi-focal burn intervention programs for more information).

Review of contact burn interventions:

Summary of contact burn interventions

Product modification, that is, environmental interventions offer the most effective methods for reducing both contact burns. Stove guards (protective rails) around kitchen stoves and screens around heaters keep young children away from hazards.³³  Burn injury rates are presented for contact and scald burns combined. Separate data on contact burns is not available. A study by Elberg in 1987 also reported reduction in scald and contact burn injuries as a result of a 17-year campaign in Denmark.⁴⁰  Data on types of burn injuries were not separated.

Recommendations on contact burn interventions

Product modifications which prevent children from coming into contact with hot stoves, irons and heaters would seem to be the most reasonable approach to reducing these types of burns. Multi-disciplinary educational approaches involving the media, lay organization and public authorities appeared to work in the Harstad Project in Norway.³³  It is not clear whether the same success could be achieved in larger and more heterogeneous populations like the United States.

Recommendations for future research

Engineering approaches should be employed to design safer products.

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