The temperature of the curling iron is 200 ℃ ... A 3-year-old child with his legs caught in a burn and goes to the hospital for more than a month

Tatsuhiro Yamanaka "Protecting Children"

So far, we have talked about burns caused by steam and boiling water, but this time, let's talk about the case of getting burned by touching household appliances.

The child's limbs get into the surface that sandwiches the hair

Illustration: Maya Takahashi

Recently, at my clinic, I had the opportunity to see a child who was burned with a curling iron. Curling irons are tools for styling hair with heat and are essential items for mothers. Imagine a scene where a child gets burned. There is a toddler beside her mother who is trimming her hair, and she looks interesting. The mother puts a curling iron on the table to check the condition of the waves in her hair and to use a comb. Children hold the trowel part of the curling iron with their hands if they want to try it. Curling irons heat only the inside (trowel part) that sandwiches the hair, but some products reach 100 ° C in about 30 seconds when the power is turned on. Most of them reach 150-200 ° C when used, and do not cool to a safe temperature immediately after the power is turned off. The surface of the curling iron that sandwiches the hair is about 4 cm wide for large ones, and most of the limbs of small children can fit in it. The shape is also rod-shaped, so children tend to grab it. Children's skin is thin and can cause burns. Even if you put it on a table or the like because you think it will be out of reach, you may get burned by pulling the cord and dropping it. Seeing several hair iron burns at my clinic means that the same thing is happening hundreds of times more than that in Japan.

In some cases, I got a burn on my leg

The Consumer Affairs Agency's "Child Safety Email" also frequently calls attention. Looking at those cases, there are many cases of palm burns, but there are also cases of foot burns. Most of them are 1-2 years old. Let's take a typical example from "Child Safety Email". "A child stepped on a hair iron that was being heated on the floor and suffered two burns on his right foot." (2 years old) "After using the hair iron, the guardian turned off the power and placed it on the table. A few minutes later, the child pulled the cord, touched the heated part of the curling iron that had fallen, and burned his palm. " I was addicted to it. I immediately chilled it with water for more than 30 minutes and went to the hospital, but the burn was close to 3 degrees and I went to the hospital for more than a month. " I had a hair iron set at 210 ° C. My child touched it and burned my palm once or twice. ”(0 years old)“ The child put his heel on the hot hair iron on the floor. I got caught and got burned twice. "(5 years old)