VANCOUVER/CNW/ - The BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund's 16th annual Burn Awareness Week (BAW) program runs Feb. 5 to 11.
Available online at www.burnfund.org, BAW teaches kids to be responsible for their own safety, and helps make their families aware of potentially harmful situations.
To encourage student participation, the Burn Fund runs the annual Burn Awareness Week Poster Contest. Every entrant receives a participation prize and 50 students will win money for their elementary school or BC Ministry of Education sanctioned distance education facility. There are seven regional prizes, including a $1,000 grand prize and six $500 regional prizes. Regions are the Lower Mainland (three winners), Vancouver Island, Kootenays, Northern B.C. and the Okanagan (one winner for each area). Forty-three students win runner-up prizes of $50 each for their school or distance education facility. Complete prize details, rules and regulations are available online.
The Burn Hazard
A survey by Safe Kids Canada found that 70 per cent of Canadian parents did not know that the most common cause of burn injuries to children is scalds from hot liquids, such as spilled hot drinks and hot tap water, rather than fire.
"Most adults realize that children need to be kept safe from fire or hot objects like the stove, but they do not realize that hot liquids are just as dangerous," says Tim Baillie, Burn Fund director and c of the Burn Awareness Week program. "Hot liquids burn just like fire."
Each year an estimated 9,000 children in Canada visit hospital emergency room for burns, and almost half of these have suffered scalds from hot liquids. (Source: Safe Kids Canada)
Scalds from hot tap water are often the most severe. Children's skin is thinner and more sensitive. A child's skin burns four times more quickly and more deeply than an adult's skin at the same temperature. Most home hot water heaters in Canada are set at 60° Celsius (140° Fahrenheit). At this temperature, a child's skin can burn in just one second.
The Burn Fund urges parents to study this important burn and scald safety information and to spend some time with their children to review the online Burn Awareness Program. A list of scald and burn prevention Safety Tips is available upon request.].
The Burn Fund is a registered charity established in 1978 by the BC Professional Fire Fighters Association.