Burns due to cooking oils--an increasing hazard

From July 1967 to June 1981, the proportion of all burns patients admitted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital Burns Unit, who were burnt by hot cooking oil or fat, rose 5.1 per cent during the first five years of the study, to 11.3 per cent during the last four years, probably due mainly to the rising popularity of cooking food in hot oil, but also probably due partly to the changing patterns of how cooking oil is used. Sixty-two of the 112 patients sustaining hot cooking oil or fat burns over the 14-year period, were males (55 per cent), and 50 were females (45 per cent). Patients of all ages were involved, but there was a notable increase in the proportion of 30-39 year-olds and a notable decrease in the proportion of those aged 60 years and older. The vast majority of these burns occurred in the domestic situation, and this majority increased over the 14 years, may be explained by changes in the of industrial cooking. The notable increase in the ratio of deep partial/full thickness burns in the series, over the fourteen years, may be explained by changes in the relative amounts of cooking done with different types of fats and oils, which have differing physico-chemical properties, although the proportion of patients receiving skin grafts did not alter much with time, reflecting the increasing tendency to graft burns. Ninety-six per cent of the patients in the series sustained burns of less than 20 per cent of their body surface area, and the proportion suffering burns of 1 per cent or less in area has risen markedly. No deaths directly resulted, and predisposing factors to burn injury were remarkably absent. The majority of patients sustained burns to their hands, reflecting the situation in which most of these burns occur, that is, spilling a carried vessel of ignited cooking oil. Prevention by greater consumer education is recommended.