Heat is on: hair straighteners cause burns in children

INCREASING numbers of children are suffering contact burns caused by hair-straightening devices, Australian experts say.

Data from the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, and the Queensland Injury Surveillance Unit revealed 22 paediatric patients treated for hair-straightener injuries between January 2004 and June 2009, with 16 of these cases occurring in the last two years.

Most injuries were to the hands or forearms, and in all cases burns were significant, with 19 partial-thickness burns and three full-thickness burns requiring surgery. Nine children required long-term scar management.

“In toddlers (16 patients aged 9-48 months) the main mechanism of injury was grasping or pulling down a hair straightener that was either turned on or cooling,” the authors said. They called for increased awareness of the danger.

MJA 2009;191:516-17