Fires and Burns
Scope
of the Problem
Burns are the fourth leading cause of unintentional
injury death in the United States. There are approximately 5,000 deaths, 54,000
hospitalizations and 1.4 million fire and burn injuries each year in the United States.1 Severe burn injuries require multiple hospitalizations
and lengthy treatment and may result in permanent disability and disfigurement.
The intervention strategies included in this
review are grouped in the following categories:
Education
- Physician based
- Community based
- School based
Product/environmental modification
- Preset water heater temperatures
- Stove guards
- Safety fuses for fireworks
Legislation/regulation
- Decrease water heater temperature
- Flammable Fabrics Act to make children’s sleepwear flame retardant.
- Require smoke detectors in residential structures
Electrical burns are not covered in this
review because they are not a significant source of morbidity or mortality. This
class of burns is chiefly a problem with toddlers and crawling children who stick
objects into light sockets or suck on appliance cords. The American Academy of Pediatrics
recommends electrical outlet covers for unused electrical sockets.2 Short cords on appliances will minimize toddler exposure to
cords. Two studies by Dershewitz 3,4 concluded that educational approaches to home hazards reduction
was not effective and recommended product modification as a more feasible alternative.
In this review, we evaluate interventions
for four categories of burn injuries: flame, scald, contact, and fireworks burns.
The interventions reviewed for each of these categories of burn injuries are as
follows:
Prevention Interventions
Flame burns
Scald burns
Contact burns
Fireworks
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