Steam And Hot Water Burns: Treatments And Recommendations
Contact with steam and hot water can cause burns of varying degrees. When to consult a doctor ? What to do to avoid complications? In this space, we detail it.
Steam and hot water burns, or scalds, are one of the most common accidents in the home. At first glance, they don’t seem to affect the tissue much; however, they can cause serious damage. For this reason, knowing your treatment is essential.
When you think of burns, the first thing that comes to your mind is those produced by fire. But, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says, of all patients hospitalized for these injuries in the United States, between 33% and 58% are the result of water burns.
Generally speaking, there are different types of burns depending on their depth. In this sense, they can range from the first to the third degree, the latter being the most severe level and where deep tissues such as muscles and nerves can be affected.
How do steam and hot water burns occur?
Most scalds occur in the home during certain daily tasks. When water reaches its boiling point, it turns into vapor. In this process, the particles become smaller, but maintain a temperature around 100 ° C.
Therefore, hot water and steam are capable of causing very serious burns. In fact, according to the Spanish Pediatric Association, hot water at 60 ° C can cause a third degree burn in a child, in just 3 seconds.
Burns often occur while cooking food. In particular, they occur when handling everyday objects such as kettles, steamers or pressure cookers.
Since when water turns to vapor it expands the area it occupies, it usually comes out with some pressure from the container that contains it. As a result, the damage generated on the tissues increases.
The CDC details that the areas of the body most affected by scalds are the arms and hands with an incidence of 42%, while in second place are the feet and legs. This is related to the mechanism of appearance, as they can be generated by the spillage of hot liquids.
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