If you can’t stand the festive heat, get out the kitchen!

Food, glorious food – that’s what Christmas and New Year means for a lot of people.

Roast dinner with all the trimmings, Christmas pud with brandy sauce, piping hot mince pies, sherry trifle and mini sausage rolls. My mouth is watering already.

“Keep children and anyone not helping with the cooking out of the kitchen as much as possible, especially when saucepans are bubbling with hot water and sizzling hot meat is being lifted out of the oven” – Sheila Merrill.

While this gives families, including those budding Heston Blumenthals, a chance to really dabble with their culinary skills, it is also a time to remember that the kitchen is a hotbed of hidden dangers, particularly when hordes of relatives and friends come together.

Burning food was responsible for more than 12,600 fires in UK homes in 2011/12, leading to 10 deaths and 2,751 casualties. At the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), advisers are offering a wealth of Christmas home safety tips   to get families safely through the festive period.

My advice is to keep children and anyone not helping with the cooking out of the kitchen as much as possible, especially when saucepans are bubbling with hot water and sizzling hot meat is being lifted out of the oven. Spitting hot oil and boiling water can scald, so always use a cooker’s back rings or hotplates first and position pan handles so they can’t be pulled over.

More worryingly, people often forget that a large turkey is incredibly heavy and can easily be dropped into the path of excited youngsters peeping out from between your legs.

It also helps to see a busy kitchen from the eyes of a child. Get down to their line of vision if necessary and look up at the surfaces where hot drinks, wine glasses and knives are often left precariously teetering on the edge and in touching distance of little hands that instinctively want to grab hold. That’s not a great prospect when you realise that a hot drink can scald a small child up to 15 minutes after it has been made.

Give yourself plenty of time to prepare and cook Christmas and New Year feasts and wipe up any spills on the floor quickly to avoid accidents involving hot fat, boiling water and sharp knives that too often come from rushing around.

Have a safe and happy Christmas.

Mark Cashin, chair of the Chief Fire Officers Association’s National Home Safety Committee, was telling me how the majority of house fires start in the kitchen. He added that there were more fire hazards in the home at Christmas than at any other time of year.

Mark’s advice is to make sure the cooker is clean and clear of debris that gets strewn around when creating a gastronomic masterpiece, like tea towels, packaging and paper towels, which can easily catch fire. And however busy things get, never leave the cooking unattended.

And without sounding too much of a killjoy, if the bubbly starts flowing early, it would be best if the chef could avoid drinking too much alcohol while cooking to avoid unnecessary accidents.

Hopefully that gives plenty of food for thought, but as I tuck into my turkey and trimmings, all that’s left to say is have a happy, safe and delicious Christmas holiday.

Sheila Merrill, RoSPA’s public health adviser

Hair straighteners – hot enough to fry an egg and can scar for life!

When thinking about injuries which occur to children in the home, how many of us have considered the everyday hair straightener as a danger?

Alfie Vance was just seven months old when he accidentally fell face first onto a pair of cooling hair straighteners. Within a matter of seconds his delicate skin was burnt between his eyes and on his forehead. Alfie has been left with a permanent scar.

We use them on a daily basis and think nothing of regularly styling our hair to temperatures exceeding 200 degrees; but what happens when these styling devices accidentally come into contact with a child’s skin? Quite frankly, the outcome is horrifying!

A new campaign has been launched this week in Northern Ireland to raise awareness of the dangers hair straighteners can pose to children, causing burns which can require hospital admission and surgical intervention, including plastic surgery.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and Home Accident Prevention Northern Ireland (HAPNI) are working in partnership with the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust on the Too Hot to Handle campaign, funded by the Electrical Safety Council (ESC). It follows a rise in the number of children attending A&E at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children with hair straightener burns.

Figures from the Children’s Hospital show that 17 children aged between three months and nine years attended A&E at the hospital in 2009-10 with hair straightener burns. This represented nine per cent of the 187 children who attended with “thermal injuries” during that year. The average age of the children admitted with hair straightener burns was 18 months.

Nicola Vance, 25, from Northern Ireland, had never really considered hair straighteners to be a risk to her child, that was until an accident occurred leaving her son with a permanent scar.

“Alfie was lucky that he didn’t lose his eyes, although he has been scarred for life. If the hair straighteners had been hotter, they would have peeled off his forehead” – Nicola Vance.

On September 8, 2011, Nicola was at home and busy straightening her hair in her bedroom with her son Alfie, then aged seven months, sat beside her on the bed. After switching the hair straighteners off and placing them on a heat resistant mat on the bed, what happened next just took a matter of seconds.

As Alfie tried to move himself along the bed, he fell face first onto the cooling straighteners and was picked up almost immediately by his mother, but a couple of seconds was all it took for Alfie’s delicate skin to be burnt between the eyes and on the forehead. Children’s skin can be 15 times thinner than adults’ skin and while the most common location for a child to sustain a serious hair straightener burn is on their hand, injuries have also been sustained to the head, arm and foot.

Nicola said her son, now 19 months, was lucky the damage caused by the straighteners hadn’t been more serious, although Alfie has been left with a permanent scar between his eyes.

“Alfie was lucky that he didn’t lose his eyes, although he has been scarred for life. If the hair straighteners had been hotter, they would have peeled off his forehead,” she said.

Since the accident, Nicola has ensured that her hair straighteners are switched off straight away and kept in a heat resistant bag, out of the sight and reach of Alfie, in a separate room where he doesn’t have access.

Hair straighteners can take as long as 40 minutes to cool down and are capable of frying an egg, as this video demonstrates:

Remember, it doesn’t always take a flame to burn, but burns caused by hair straighteners ARE preventable!

Ita McErlean, RoSPA’s home safety manager in Northern Ireland

Shopping for safety with RoSPA and dbda

RoSPA’s partner in safety, dbda, has launched a shiny new website to showcase our range of products. Visit www.rospashop.com to take a look at what’s on offer.

Resources cover a vast range of topics and safety areas, from workplace safety to safety at home, on the road, in and around water, and at leisure.

Also on offer is an exceptional variety of safety education materials aimed at teachers and schools, as well as posters, books and activities for parents and governors. In fact, we’ve just released a new set of resources aimed at teachers – if you want to build safety into your lessons, your first stop should be RoSPA.

Posters, books and videos are a great way of supplementing and illustrating safety messages, helping to bring safety to life. Go and visit, and take a look around: there’s something for everyone and plenty of ideas to inspire a safer way of life.

The not-so-noble gas that kills

At this time of the year our attention turns to the prospect of long dark nights. And when the clocks fall back an hour, many of us think about turning up the central heating and start to enjoy the prospect of sitting beside a glowing fire while watching our favourite programme on television.

Everyone’s focus tends to be on the children starting or returning to school or students moving into digs – but how many spare a thought for the last time fuel-burning appliances, chimneys and flues were serviced and cleaned?

RoSPA continues to raise awareness of home safety throughout the year to the people of Northern Ireland, but in the autumn we begin to remind you once again about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

What we don’t want is to distress or scare you about the dangers that lurk in and around your home – we want to keep reminding you to take preventative measures to keep yourselves and your families safe.

This year we are bringing forward our plans to raise awareness of the “silent killer” with help from the Gis A Hug Foundation, who by now have almost become a household name. The foundation was established in memory of Neil McFerran and Aaron Davidson who died last year as a result of CO poisoning. With the help of the foundation we aim to target those who are deemed most at risk from the silent killer, in particular students and older people.

In Northern Ireland last year there were five deaths in a four month period as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, with possible casualties from other CO-related incidents that may have gone unreported. What we do know is that since the terrible tragedies from last year, lives most certainly have been saved because of the tireless campaigning by the Gis A hug Foundation.

The Foundation has donated 300 CO alarms to RoSPA and the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT) which is running 10 carbon monoxide awareness workshops enabling around 300 people to take home a free detector. The CO warning devices were delivered to RoSPA and the SHSCT for distribution among the most vulnerable in society.

Neil’s mum, Catherine McFerran, said that the pain of losing her son is always there but that something positive has come out of it the tragedy. She explained how the Gis A Hug Foundation raises money to purchase and supply free alarms to students, older people and other vulnerable members of society.

We continue to support of the foundation and are delighted to have been instrumental in making important introductions to the group. Mr McFerran told us that the foundation has received lots of feedback from people who told them that the alarms have saved lives.

As a parting message on this subject, I encourage you to cultivate new habits by being inquisitive about home safety – in particular about the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning. So please take the time to read the important safety steps mentioned below and to explore the RoSPA website:

• Have gas appliances serviced annually by a gas engineer registered with the Gas Safe Register
• CO is not just a by product of burning gas, but of all fossil fuels. So if you have wood, coal or oil burning appliances, have these regularly serviced by professionals too
• Keep rooms adequately ventilated, never block air vents and have chimneys and flues swept regularly
• Remember: CO detectors and alarms are a last resort in the prevention of CO poisoning. They are not a substitute for proper maintenance and servicing.

Advice for preventing CO poisoning applies equally to caravans, boats and holiday homes with fuel-burning appliances, such as heaters or stoves. And following three tragic incidents across the UK this summer, it is vital that people know that they should never take barbecues or stoves into tents to keep warm.

If you live in rented property, ask your landlord to show you the Landlord’s Gas Safety Record. This is something that students in particular should bear in mind at this time of year, when they are looking for accommodation.

Know what you’re looking for when it comes to symptoms: if you, your family, or even your pets show signs of prolonged flu-like symptoms, or if your appliances’ pilot lights burn with an orange flame rather than blue, it could be time to get your home checked.

For more information on the dangers of carbon monoxide and other home safety concerns please visit www.rospa.com.

Ita McErlean, RoSPA’s home safety manager in Northern Ireland

A childhood scald can be a life sentence

We were recently made aware of a good video by North Bristol NHS Trust called “Hot Drinks Harm”, produced to highlight the scalding risk to children posed by hot tea and coffee.

Every 90 seconds someone in the UK is burned or scalded in an accident. That’s quite a shocking statistic, particularly when you realise just how serious it can be.

Most people are well aware that a scald or burn is extremely painful when it happens. However, not many know that a serious scald in childhood is a life sentence for the individual – and one that can be easily avoided.

It’s relatively well known that hot bath water is the number one cause of serious scalding injuries among young children. Every day, at least one child under five is admitted to hospital with serious scalds caused by bath water. Thankfully, the fitting of thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs) is reducing the incidence of bath-time scalds.

Less well known, though, is the fact that many children go to hospital each day with scalds caused by hot drinks.

Under-fives make up six per cent of the population but receive a much larger proportion of scald injuries. Given children’s smaller size, they are more damaged, proportionally, than adults by the same amount of hot water. Children’s skin – and particularly babies’ skin – can be up to 15 times thinner than adults’, making it far more delicate and susceptible to damage. Did you know that a hot drink can still scald a child up to 15 minutes after being made?

So what are the costs?

Scalds make up around 70 per cent of all burns injuries to children. From a purely financial point of view, the cost to the NHS is an average of £1,850 per child scalded – in really severe cases, up to £250,000.

However, the implications of a childhood scald go far beyond monetary costs: a burn injury takes seconds, but stays for life. A child who receives a burn or scald can look forward to years of painful treatment; and in the most serious cases, they face hundreds of operations to release the scar tissue as they grow.

With serious burns, it’s not just a case of patching up a child with protective bandages and antiseptic – skin grafts are required, and a toddler may need further grafts until they stop growing 15 or 20 years later.

The psychological impact of a burn injury is also immense, particularly when children reach their teenage years and have to cope with their scarring alongside the usual teenage image and self-confidence issues. Some children are disfigured for life, with their parents experiencing a prolonged sense of guilt.

Support is available for families who have experienced scald injuries; but it’s far better to prevent them occurring in the first place.

What can be done?

A few simple precautions can prevent a lifetime of pain:

• Don’t hold a hot drink and a child at the same time
• Never leave young children alone in the bathroom
• Put hot drinks out of reach and away from the edges of tables and worktops – and beware of tablecloths! A drink in the middle of the table can quickly be a danger to a toddler grabbing at the edge of a tablecloth
• Encourage the use of a coiled flex or a cordless kettle
• Keep small children out of the kitchen whenever possible
• Run the domestic hot water system at 46°C or fit a thermostatic mixing valve to taps
• When running a bath turn the cold water on first and always test the water temperature with your elbow before letting a child get into the bath or shower
• Always use rear hotplates and turn the panhandles away from the front of the cooker
• Keep hot irons, curling tongs and hair straighteners out of reach even when cooling down – or use a heat-proof bag.

We need to make people understand that these are largely preventable injuries, emphasising that the cost of treatment is far greater than the cost of prevention. Nobody wants their child to come to harm, so in most cases, a little education goes a very long way.

Jane Trobridge, home safety officer for RoSPA

Falling for accident prevention

“The NHS treats elderly patients with broken hips as a ‘low priority’ by failing to give them prompt and high-quality treatment that could extend their lives,” reported the Daily Telegraph on June 22.

This may be true – indeed, this information was provided by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) – and it’s worrying that the older population is growing, so the problem is not going to go away.

However, on this issue, the media appears to have missed the obvious – in that scant, if any, mention is made of preventing these injuries in the first place.

According to NICE, up to 75,000 people suffer hip fractures each year. This figure is expected to rise to 100,000 by the end of the decade – a consequence of an ageing population.

To put the issue into perspective: broken hips affect more women than breast cancer does.

People’s quality of life is vastly reduced following a fall-related fracture, and older people’s independence is often curtailed. Health problem follows health problem, and about 10 per cent of people with a fractured hip die within one month – and around a third will die within 12 months. Add to this the stress and worry to family and friends, and the increased burden of care, and we have human tragedy on a massive – and increasing – scale.

If the human costs of fall-related injuries aren’t enough to convince you that things need to change: in terms of financial costs – at the forefront of everybody’s minds at the moment – hip fractures are estimated to cost £2 billion a year in medical treatment and social care.

What about preventing the fall in the first place? Accident prevention can and should play a starring role in the UK’s public health plan.

At the moment, accident prevention advice and information is being delivered by numerous smaller, extremely dedicated and hard-working organisations around the country.

There have been some great examples of successful working between local NHS organisations and local authorities. In Dudley in the West Midlands, for example, a falls prevention initiative, the £158k a year costs of which were funded by the Primary Care Trust and the council, saved £3 million over five years due to the corresponding reduction in hip fractures.

The problem of falls among older people was highlighted during Northern Ireland’s recent Home Accident Prevention Week (June 6-10).

Accidental falls claimed the lives of 155 people across Northern Ireland in 2009, of whom two thirds (103 people) were aged 65 or over. The most serious accidents usually happen on the stairs and injuries can have long lasting and life limiting effects – as we have seen.

We know that the risk of falling in the home and of suffering a serious injury as a result increases with age. We hope the simple prevention tips shared below will be shared among communities and families and reach as many people as possible.

• Keep landings, stairs and hallways well lit
• Insert a dual handrail on stairs where possible
• Replace worn carpets and remove loose rugs and mats (or use non-slip backings)
• Wear suitable footwear
• Remove clutter from floors and stairs
• Use stepladders for household jobs instead of climbing on chairs
• Store everyday items in easy-to-reach places
• Review medication with your GP/pharmacist
• Wipe up spills straight away, and use bath/shower mats
• Ensure you get your eyes tested
• Keep active!

These last two points deserve to be expanded upon a little.

The Daily Express reported last week that two million over-60s have not taken advantage of free eye tests, even though 270,000 older people have had falls as a result of poor vision in the past two years. These figures came from a study to mark Age UK’s Falls Awareness Week.

Age UK is rightly concerned that many older people are not aware that they are entitled to free eye tests. Their study found a range of reasons were given for not going to the optician: 42 per cent felt there was nothing wrong with their eyes, nine per cent were concerned about the cost of buying glasses, and six per cent simply said they forgot to go and have a sight test.

Raising awareness of the connection between poor eyesight and falls may encourage more older people to take advantage of this free service.

As far as keeping active goes: this is extremely important in improving mobility and balance among the older population. However, it goes deeper than that. Keeping fit and active from a young age and throughout life will help to ensure that you stay fit and healthy into old age.

These issues highlight the fact that accident prevention is intimately linked to many other areas of healthcare – and could save a lot of pain in the long run.

So why is it underreported? Why is the media missing the obvious when reporting on falls, and ill health relating to accidents? I guess it’s not “sexy”, not headline grabbing enough. Perhaps. Then it’s down to accident prevention charities and organisations to make the subject newsworthy – spread the word.

Everyone has parents and grandparents or elderly friends and neighbours – not to mention the fact that we are all (hopefully!) going to live to a ripe old age, and reap the benefits of this type of accident prevention advice ourselves.

Ita McErlean, RoSPA’s home safety manager for Northern Ireland

Safe at Home: A Two-Tier Success

Following on from Michael Corley’s recent blog post – Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics – about accident prevention, it seems that the topic of today’s blog post is entirely appropriate as an illustration of how accident prevention can work.

In 2009, RoSPA launched the Safe At Home scheme (funded by the former Department for Children, Schools and Families), which had the aim of reducing accident rates among under-fives through targeted support for families in 141 areas in England with the highest accident rates.

Support included the provision of home safety information and safety equipment, such as safety gates, fireguards and window restrictors, through a network of new and existing local home safety equipment schemes. RoSPA also trained staff working at the local schemes.

The scheme has been incredibly successful, exceeding its target of supplying safety equipment to 60,196 families. The final figures show that the total number of families to receive free equipment by March 31, 2011, when the scheme came to an end, was an impressive 66,127.

This type of venture is a great example of how the Government’s “Big Society” could work at its best. It’s also a great antidote to those who wail about the “nanny state” and “busybodies” – those who have benefited from the scheme tell a very different story

You see, raising awareness of risk is NOT the same as telling people what to do in their own homes. If you’re a new parent, or are not around small children very often, it’s unlikely that you’ll know about the hazards toddlers face in the home.

Getting down on your hands and knees and looking at the world from their point of view paints a very different picture – and reveals a multitude of hazards that were not apparent before.

For instance, before I started working at RoSPA, I had no idea that blind cords could pose any risk to children (or my cats!) – and why would I, without being told? I’ll always make sure I tie cords away with a cleat in the future – which is all that is required if, like me, you like blinds that require cords.

Accident prevention is not about banning things left, right and centre and it’s not about stopping people from having fun; it’s about raising awareness of the risks and taking reasonable steps to mitigate them – as well as improving industry safety standards. Our blind cord safety campaign is a good illustration of the type of work we do.

Presenting people with good advice and information, and allowing them to make their own choices about how to protect their families, enables them to take responsibility for their own safety without having outside “experts” tell them what to do.

All accident prevention work should be based on sound data, to ensure that time, money and resources are not wasted on interventions that target the wrong people, or are simply unlikely to work.

The statistics mentioned earlier enabled us to target the Safe At Home scheme at those who needed it most. In order to qualify to receive equipment, families with children aged 0-5 must have been living in an area covered by a participating project, and must also have been in receipt of certain benefits.

The evidence shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to be injured or killed in accidents. And in fact, shockingly, children of parents who are long-term unemployed or who have never worked are 13 times more likely to die as a result of unintentional injury and 37 times more likely to die from exposure to smoke, fire or flames than children of parents in higher managerial or professional occupations.

By installing a few simple safety measures such as smoke alarms, stair gates and window restrictors, the quality of life for these families could be vastly improved at no cost to themselves, and little cost to society – compared with the vast amount of money accidents and injuries cost us all.

It is hoped that the Safe At Home project has enabled local communities to run their own sustainable projects now the national scheme has come to an end.

More details about the achievements of Safe At Home will be announced when the project’s evaluation report is published in the next few weeks.

In the end, accident prevention advice and information could save the life of one of your family members. If you talked to someone who had lost a child in a home accident, you would probably find they had a very different perspective from the “elf ‘n’ safety” myths whipped up by some sections of the media.

Prevention is always better than cure. This applies to accident prevention as much as anything else. Join the debate – and support our campaign today.

Vicky Fraser, RoSPA’s Press Officer/Web Editor

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. So said former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, at a time when healthy scepticism in the rhetorical use of numbers was all the rage – as well as stovepipe top hats and brightly striped pantaloons.

But much has changed since the late 19^th-century – and not just the fashion.

Nowadays, the robust analysis of data is essential if your argument is to get a toe-hold in the collective consciousness (competing as it must with the X-Factor, Pippa Middleton, and the off-field antics of celebrity footballers).

But seriously, in an age of scarce resources every organisation worth their salt must now be providing a sophisticated response to the riddle, “where do we target resources?”

Here, at RoSPA, the answer to that question is staring us full in the face.

Accidents are responsible for 14,000 deaths and millions of injuries across the UK each year, costing the country an estimated £150billion. Yet, prevention is fairly easy to implement and inexpensive to deliver.

That’s why it is one of our key campaigns to make accident prevention a public health priority.

In a nutshell, here’s what we know about this “hidden epidemic”:

• Accidents are the principal cause of death up to the age of 39 in the UK

• Accidental injury continues to be the main cause of death for children after infancy
• In 2009, one death in 40 in England and Wales was caused by an accident. Roughly three times as many people suffer a serious, life-changing injury as are killed
• Among the causes of accidental death that have been increasing in recent years are falls, and accidental choking, strangulation and suffocation, particularly among older people
• Accidents are financially costly to Government and society
• Accident prevention is, compared to other potential public health interventions, easy to implement and inexpensive to deliver
• The return on accident prevention investment, measured in Quality Adjusted Life Years, outstrips every other potential public health intervention.

• Accidents diminish the lives of nearly a third of people in England

Following a lot of hard work in recent decades, big strides have been made in bringing down the number of people accidentally killed or injured on the road and at work. Yet, despite these significant gains, mortality statistics show that the overall trend for accidental death in the UK has been generally upwards in the last few years.

Accidents do not just cause immediate pain and suffering to the victim. Grief can last a lifetime and divorce and family breakdown are recognised as potential consequences of serious accidents. Families can suffer extreme financial hardship and the stress and strain of caring for an injured loved one should not be underestimated.

Despite RoSPA’s consistent lobbying – along with the work of many other organisations – accident prevention has remained a worryingly low priority for successive governments and has still not received the level of attention it deserves.

Several times in the last two decades, accidents have been listed as a priority by the Department of Health. But when there is a change of minister, the impetus often slows and suddenly the topic is dropped. Without government leadership and vocal support, others will not keep up the momentum.

In November 2010, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley announced the Coalition Government’s plans for public health in England, including the establishment of a new integrated service, called Public Health England.

RoSPA welcomed the opportunity to respond to the White Paper, Healthy Lives, Healthy People: our strategy for public health in England, and two associated consultations. However, the White Paper’s lack of recognition of the accidental injury problem, including its distribution, severities, costs or preventability, was of great concern. The focus instead was on other issues, such as alcohol-related ill health, diet, exercise and mental health.

In responding to the consultation, RoSPA put together the most comprehensive policy paper about accident prevention as a public health issue in its 94-year history. You can read RoSPA’s full consultation response (PDF 343kb) here.

RoSPA urges the Government and other leaders in the public health field to reflect on the many arguments which, taken together, constitute an unassailable case for developing fresh action on accident and injury prevention. Only by making such action a permanently-embedded feature of public health policy and practice in the UK will we be able to get on with our mission: which is to save lives and reduce injuries.

If you are as concerned as we are by this lack of action, please visit our public health campaign webpage and click on the big red “Support Our Campaign” button.

Your support – and the support of your friends and colleagues – would be much appreciated.

Michael Corley

RoSPA’s Campaigns Manager

Safety tips for a right royal barbecue

Now that Kate and Wills have finally tied the knot, all of our patriotic bonhomie is likely to find expression in sun-soaked get-togethers this bank holiday weekend.

And as we all know, good weather and fine company can mean but one thing: barbecues!

Without wanting to pour water on your hot coals, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t warn you about some of the hazards involved in cooking al fresco.

With just a few simple preparations, families can easily avoid the burns, scalds and cuts that threaten to get in the way of a good time.

Rarely does a year go by without reports of serious injuries being sustained when something goes wrong at a barbecue. Last time accident figures were collected on a national level, around 1,800 people visited A&E in the UK having had an accident involving a barbecue.

Of those people, around 800 had suffered a burn or scald, and 200 had suffered a cut. The vast majority of these accidents (1,400) happened at home, with 300 occurring in a public place.

Barbecues should be fun, and will be safe if you prepare properly. Here’s how:

• When choosing a barbecue, stability is essential – ensure the one you choose is strong and sturdy
• Check the barbecue is in good condition (particularly if you have not used it for some time); look for loose or damaged parts requiring adjustment or repair
• Consider the location – level ground, away from fences, sheds and overhanging trees, which have been known to catch fire
• Never light a barbecue in an enclosed space
• Prepare the barbecue early to ensure it is at the right temperature by the time you want to cook
• Particular care should be taken in hot, dry weather to reduce the risk of starting a grass fire
• Never pour petrol, meths or other accelerants on to a barbecue. Some of the most serious barbecue-related accidents happen when people do this and the barbecue “explodes” in their face
• Use long-handled tools and be careful of steam when opening foil parcels – it can cause a nasty scald
• Remember that the metal parts of a barbecue can become hot – don’t try to move it until it has cooled down
• Don’t leave children unsupervised near a barbecue
• Make sure the barbecue is fully extinguished before you leave it
• Take care when getting rid of a disposable barbecue, or barbecue coals – ensure they have cooled down before placing them in a bin.

If you are planning to have a barbecue in a public place, the same precautions apply but also ensure that you are allowed to barbecue at the location you intend to use – and never leave the barbecue unattended.

Okay, preachy bit over. Now, where did I put that relish?

Michael Corley

RoSPA’s Campaigns Manager

Scottish Borders and South Lanarkshire launch the Make it Safe campaign

I started off at the Scottish Borders launch at Newtown St Boswells on March 11, which was attended by some of the partners who will be distributing the cleats.

Officers from Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service were present, as was Paul Richardson who works for Scottish Borders Council Safer Communities Team. Thanks must go to Paul for organising this launch and being a key figure in the Borders campaign.

Councillor Alec Nicol (Chair of the Scottish Borders Safer Communities Partnership) was also in attendance and gave his full support to the campaign. Councillor Frances Renton, who is Chair of the Scottish Borders Childcare Partnership also supported the launch and will play a key role in spreading the safety message whenever possible.

Make it Safe leaflets and cleats will be distributed throughout nurseries in the Borders, and children from the playgroup next door to the launch came to visit, and happily stood for a few photos with us:

L-R: Councillors Alec Nicol and Frances Renton and Jennifer Henderson of RoSPA

South Lanarkshire launch

The Make it Safe launch from First Step Community Nursery in Hamilton on March 17 was attended by the partners who are making up the steering group:

• Margaret Brunton, South Lanarkshire Council’s home safety officer
• Sandy Gillespie, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue’s group commander community safety
• John Gold, Care and Repair
• Maggie Barrie – head of establishment at First Step Community Nursery.

It was really good to meet all the partners at the launch, as well as parents and grandparents of local children who came to visit. Everybody who attended was so enthusiastic about the campaign and was thankful for being invited to the launch – and one of the parents and one grandparent got more than they bargained for when they ended up on film for South Lanarkshire Council’s YouTube page!

There were lots of lovely cakes on offer which kept us all going in during the launch itself, the photographs that were taken and our stints behind the camera for YouTube. The link to their YouTube site is http://www.youtube.com/user/SouthLanarkshireTV.

It’s really gratifying to see that the campaign is being embraced so enthusiastically – and it appears to be very successful in raising awareness. An evaluation of the pilot project that took place in North Lanarkshire should that 63 per cent of cleats had already been fitted in homes at the time of the survey.

Since receiving the Make it Safe information, 60 per cent of respondents said they were now unlikely to buy any blinds with looped cords, while 43 per cent of respondents were not aware of information on blind cord safety before they received the Make it Safe information.

Perhaps most crucially, 69 per cent of respondents have gone on to discuss the risks of looped blind cords with other parents or carers.

It’s vital that we keep the topic front and centre in the field of home safety, because blind cords are such an innocuous everyday item that it wouldn’t occur to most people that they could be a danger. Thanks to everyone for all their hard work!

Jennifer Henderson

RoSPA Scotland’s Home Safety Officer