Letter to the Editor: Burns due to cooking: A potential simple solution for prevention

Many factors have been described and reported to be the causes of burns in young children, in particular in low and middle income countries (LMIC) [1]. Such factors include, lower literacy status of caretakers, lack of separate kitchen, use of traditional cookstove, and lack of child supervision [2]. In high-income countries, burn incidence has significantly decreased as a result of burn prevention programs. It was reported that burn prevention programs including public education and installation of smoke detectors and fire alarms have a significant positive impact on the incidence of such burns in high income countries [3]. The implementation and evaluation of similar programs in LMIC, however, have been sparse, according to prior systematic reviews published [1,4]. Of these factors that result in severe burns, cooking with wood, cooking/cooling on the ground, or cooking within children’s reach seem preventable. Solutions have ranged from improvement of education, media campaigns and environmental modifications such as smokeless stoves, separate kitchen and living spaces and more child supervision [5]. Several of these studies report before- and after incidences and showed improvements after conducting the abovementioned improvements. However, the incidence of burns in general and specifically burns related to cooking remains high in LMIC. In this letter, we propose a simple adjunct potential solution that can reduce the number of burns due to cooking accidents involving hot liquids. We believe that elevation of a smokeless induction cooking stove alone will not suffice. Thus, we strongly propose installing both an elevated cooking station, as well as an elevated cooling station. Both must be elevated sufficiently to prevent toddlers or very young children from reaching up and spilling hot liquid on themselves and/or falling into the hot pot of liquid cooking or cooling on the ground. In summary, burns due to scalds from cooking accidents remain a significant problem in LMIC. However, solutions to these problems need to continue to be suggested, and more importantly implemented.