Hair styling tools caused 30K pediatric burns in a decade, study finds

Key takeaways:

• Over 97% of burns from hair styling tools were caused by curling irons or a similar product.
• Of the injured patients, 68% were aged younger than 10 years.

WASHINGTON — Electric hair styling tools such as curling irons caused over 30,000 injuries among children and young adults between 2013 and 2022, according to a study presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition.

The core of what pediatricians practice is “anticipatory guidance to families to ensure the safety of children in and outside of the home,” said Capt. Brandon L. Rozanski, MD, a pediatric resident at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu and co-author of the study.

“A topic that I commonly bring up with families is accidental injuries involving different consumer products,” Rozanski told Healio. “An area that I often stress includes burn injuries in the home to include but not limited to cooking-related accidents, scalded burn injuries from hot water, and household appliances outside of the kitchen. The reason why I stress this topic with so many families is not only due to the fact that burn injuries are a common injury among children presenting to emergency departments, but [also] the severity that can come with such injuries.”

Burn injuries due to hair styling tools have received little in terms of analysis, despite being common products found in homes throughout the country, Rozanski said.

“The goal of our study was to close the gap in literature to better define the frequency of burn injuries from hair styling tools across the product spectrum,” Rozanski said.

Rozanski and colleagues studied information from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database, which collects data on consumer product-related injuries occurring in the U.S. They assessed the frequency of injuries among people aged 0 to 24 years whose injuries involved electric hair styling products from 2013 to 2022.

“From the reported data, we were able to obtain national estimates of burn injuries in relation to specific hair styling tool, demographic background of each patient, and whether escalation of care, such as admission to hospital, occurred,” Rozanski said.

The researchers estimated that there were 30,839 burns caused by hair styling tools, based on 1,050 actual ED encounters, and that 72.3% of them occurred in the home. Curling irons and hair curlers were the predominant cause, responsible for 97.4% of incidents.

“These products are known to reach temperatures as high as 450°F but take an extended period of time to cool down to a safe temperature for storage,” Rozanski said. “As a result, when left unattended after use in an area where it can be easily accessible by children, there is a high propensity for a burn injury to happen.”

About 68% of injured patients were aged younger than 10 years, and the injured party was more likely to be female (65.1%), but the overwhelming majority (98.6%) did not require hospitalization or any other escalation of care. Rozanski said the results aligned with the team’s predictions, specifically regarding the age range of injuries.

“From a developmental perspective, ages less than 10 are well known for their curiosity and mirror replication of parental figures in the household,” Rozanski said. “Given their curiosity and clever ability to take advantage of the smallest opportunity to inspect an object that they saw someone else use but have never encountered before, this age range is most prone to encounter such an injury.”

In terms of building on this research, Rozanski said he is interested in a comparison with burn injuries related to hair styling tools in other countries.

“This could serve as an opportunity to compare injury estimates on national scales, while investigating differences in safety guidelines and the demographics of such injuries,” Rozanski said.

References:

Electric hair styling products common cause of burn injuries in children. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1004618. Published Oct. 20, 2023. Accessed Oct. 22, 2023.

Rozanski B, et al. Burn injuries in children from hair styling tools presenting to United States emergency departments, 2013-2022: Beauty is more than skin deep. Presented at: AAP National Conference & Exhibition; Oct. 20-24, 2023; Washington, D.C.