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How to Avoid
Burns within
the Workplace
In many industries, slips, trips, falls, and lifing injuries
make up the vast majority of injuries that workers are
prone to experience. In others, however, occupational risks
make other incidents more likely. In the case of restaurant
kitchens, fast food establishments, chemical and produc-
tion facilities, and any case in which the heating, cooking,
welding, and/or soldering of materials is common, one of
the biggest risks becomes burns. While weve all acciden-
tally touched a hot pot on the stove as a child and quickly
learned to never do it again, workplace burns can be much
more severe, depending on the circumstances, and safety
managers should be well-prepared to take care of them
(and, more importantly, prevent them). Lets start out by
taking a look at the types of burns (known as degrees) a
worker might receive.
First Degree: A frst degree
burn afects only the top layer
of the skin (the epidermis),
and will only result in redness
and slight pain/irritation.
First degree burns are usually
brought on by extremely brief
contact with a hot object; they
generally require little to know
medical treatment if the
coverage of the burn is large
enough, this is not always the
case, so a professional should
be consulted in the case of all
burns.
Second Degree: A Second
degree begins to afect the
underlying layers of the skin
(the dermis), and can result
in blistering and swelling.
Because of the possibility
of rupturing skin and open
injuries, second degree burns
can put an employee at risk of
infection and should be treated
by a medical professional.
Third Degree: Tird degree burns
will destroy the nerve endings through
all or most layers of the skin, and can
even injure the underlying tissues,
muscles, and bones. Te skin layers
are completely dead and scarring will
occur. Tird degree burns should be
treated in a hospital immediately. Skin
will turn black, purple, and/or yellow
and become leathery. It is important to
note that treatment should be sought
despite any protests on the part of the
worker that they are not in major pain
the dead nerve endings may have
them feeling better of than they are.
Degrees of Burns
Common Causes
Te most common causes of burns in the workplace are
splashing liquids. Boiling water and oils are the most
dangerous, as they can remain on the skin afer initial
contact and continue to cause damage (many third degree
burns come from scalding fuids). In many production
sectors, the highest risk of burning comes from corrosive
chemical compounds and pressurizers (from which steam
can escape rapidly and burn an employee if they are too
close or directly above the container). Especially in the
case of chemical burns, a third degree burn can occur
almost instantaneously.
Prevention Techniques
As with many safety topics, techniques for avoiding burns
can be sorted under either elimination or prevention.
As you might be able to decipher, elimination cases are
those in which you can change your work environment
to eliminate a risk altogether, where prevention takes
necessary risks and makes them less, well, risky.
Lets take a look ta a situation in which a worker might get
burned on the job.
A worker carries a vat of chemical residue across the
workfoor to pour it out in the proper waste recepticle.
He walks over to the sink, but on his way slips on slick
fooring and falls, splashing chemicals on his chest and
face and receiving 2nd degree burns. Skins grafs, missed
work hours, OSHA investigations, yikes.
Prevention: One way to help reduce the risk of this
accident happening again is to place anti-slip foor
tape (like this anti-slip foor tape) where areas tend
to get wet to improve traction so that workers are less
likely to slip. Alternatively, the foor might require
more regular washings and dryings to stop it from
getting wet and slippery.
Elimination: Elimination measures could range
wildly, but the basic goal would be to eliminate the
need to carry chemicals manually in the frst place. A
manager might re-arrange the work foor (expensive)
or install a small drainage sink next to the work area
for workers to pour spent chemical waste down (less
expensive). In any event, the dangerous activity is
gone altogether.
In general, it is a good idea to install both preventative
and elimination typed measures afer an incident. In the
example above, this would mean eliminating the risk of
carrying chemical waste, but still installing traction mats
to reduce the general risks of slips and falls when workers
move about the space.
Labeling pipes, barrels, and other containers with
potentially dangerous substances in them is a good
preventative practice, and is required by OSHA guidelines
in most instances already. Conversely, if a dangerous
chemical can be stored in another area altogether so that it
is not at risk of being spilled during routine operation, you
can eliminate said risk altogether.
creativesafetysupply.com 1-866-777-1360 The leaders in visual safety.
About the author
Antonio Ferraro On behalf of Creative Safety Supply based in Portland, OR, I strive
to provide helpful information to create safer and more efcient industrial work en-
vironments. My knowledge base focuses primarily on practices such as 5S, Six Sigma,
Kaizen, and the Lean mindset. I believe in being proactive and that for positive change
to happen, we must be willing to be transparent and actively seek out areas in need of
improvement. An organized, safe, and well-planned work space leads to increased produc-
tivity, quality products and happier workplace
creativesafetysupply.com 1-866-777-1360 The leaders in visual safety.
http://blog.creativesafetysupply.com/how-to-avoid-burns-within-the-workplace/
First Aid
In general, frst aid for burns involves the use of running
warm (not cold, as you may have been taught) water over a
wound. According to a Fox News study -
warm water can do a better job of limiting
tissue damage and restoring blood fow to
afected areas. After initial treatment, all burn
victims should be examined by a doctor, or, in
the case of severe burning, an emergency room
physician.
For chemical compounds, hazardous materials should
already be labeled with GHS labels (which can be found
here) to help communicate the hazardous chemicals. In
some cases, commonly used chemicals can be neutralized
by other compounds, this is more efective than water,
which just seeks to remove the burning chemical through
pressure and rinsing. Much like an allergic individual
that keeps an EpiPen on their person at all times, safety
managers should keep neutralizing solutions on hand for
their commonly used chemicals.
Conclusion
Youll likely fnd in your own safety improvements that,
from time to time, elimination is simply not feasible.
Tis can be due to monetary or technical restrictions,
or because it would disable your business from working
at full efciency. In these cases, especially if they are
documented, it is important that you still implement the
best preventative measures you can and document that
you did properly address the issue, rather than doing
nothing at all.