Cooking-Related Burns are Very Common–and Very Preventable!

For most people, food is a truly enjoyable part of life. But when people are careless with hot food, injuries can happen–even 3rd degree burns!

For instance, just last week a couple filed suit in the California courts against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, claiming their young son suffered “severe burns” as a result of scalding-hot nacho cheese served to them. In the suit, the parents of a four-year-old boy said they were eating dinner at Disney World in Orlando last March when the cheese was spilled on their son’s face. The suit says that “the cheese was scalding hot and resulted in severe burns” to the child, and that Disney served the cheese “negligently and carelessly” and made “no effort” to regulate its temperature.

What’s more, the suit says the child suffered “permanent scarring, pain and suffering” as a result of the burns, and his parents suffered “emotional distress” from witnessing his agony. The family asked the court for the medical and legal costs incurred, as well as punitive damages.

This story brought back a particularly painful memory for me. When I was five years old, I reached for a slice of pizza that was served to me on a paper plate. But when I picked up the slice and brought it towards my mouth, the oil was so hot that the cheese slid right off the pizza and landed on the inside of my left thigh. Unfortunately, I was wearing shorts, and the pain of the hot cheese was truly unbelievable. I jumped up and shook the cheese off my leg, but by that time blisters had started forming on the inside of my thigh. While the second-degree burns on my leg did heal and the pain subsided after about two weeks, I am still somewhat afraid to this day of the various heat sources in a kitchen setting.

It seems that my fears are not irrational: A Pittsburgh firefighter suffered third-degree burns last week as he responded to a house fire that started in the kitchen. Firefighters arrived at the house and found smoke billowing from a window because of burned food. One firefighter came in contact with a pot on the stove that contained grease, which found its way into a small opening between his heavy coat and his gloves and ran onto his arms. The firefighter was transported to a local hospital and treated for a truly terrible injury: third-degree burns.

Cooking is the leading cause of fires and civilian fire injuries in the United States. So you simply cannot be careless in the kitchen when it comes to protecting against accidental fires and being burned by very hot ingredients, pots, pans, and utensils. In this Thursday’s blog, we will address the various safety precautions you can take in the kitchen. But we’ll give you the first lesson today: Never rush when moving around the kitchen–you will make it much too easy for an accident to happen!