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

1. Physician based
2. Community based
3. School based

Product/environmental modification

1. Preset water heater temperatures
2. Stove guards
3. Safety fuses for fireworks

Legislation/regulation

1. Decrease water heater temperature
2. Flammable Fabrics Act to make children’s sleepwear flame retardant.
3. 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

• Smoke detector effectiveness
• Interventions to increase smoke detector use
• Flammable Fabrics Act
• Multi-faceted burn prevention programs aimed at all types of burn injuries
• Fire skills training

Scald burns

• Reducing tap water temperature
• Safety education
• Product modification (stove guards) to prevent spilling of hot liquids

Contact burns

• Safety education
• Product modification (stove guards and screens)

Fireworks

• Legislation
• Product modification
• Safety education

^ Back to Top