Who is more at risk for a burn injury – your spouse who works at an industrial job or your infant daughter? Where is a burn injury more likely to take place – your kitchen or your garage? What is the best way to prevent burn injuries?

The most common cause of burn injuries is a thermal burn injury in the home. This category of burn injury includes direct contact with a flame or hot object, surface, or liquid. The most common burn injury for small children is a scalding injury – in these cases a child is accidentally placed in hot water or is involved in a cooking accident in the kitchen involving hot food or water. As children age, they are more likely to be injured by a burn injury involving a defective product, such as a hot iron, curling iron, space heater, or fireworks.

Adults often suffer burn injuries while on the job. These burn injuries could include electrical burns, chemical burns, explosion burns, or radiation burns. Those in a closed area near a fire may suffer from inhalation burns, in which smoke damages the lungs. Inhalation burns often occur in residential fires, commercial fires, and car fires.

Here are some common causes of burn injuries:

• Car and truck accidents
• Car and truck fires.
• House and building fires.
• Chemical burns.
• Electrical burns.
• Defective product burns.
• Burns from flammable clothing.
• On-the-job burns – especially in industrial jobs, factory jobs, and construction site jobs.
• Scalding water, steam, and hot liquid burns.
• Burns resulting from an explosion.
• Burns resulting from flammable clothing.
• Radiation burns.