Fourth of July Dangers: What Parents Need to Know
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The Fourth of July is all about celebrating summer: firework displays, family barbecues, and pool parties dominate the long weekend. But as much fun as these summer staples are, they can pose real threats to families who aren’t aware of potential dangers and don’t practice fire and water safety.
Keep your kids safe this weekend with the following tips, which will help ensure your holiday — full of sparklers and beaches and burgers — is a happy one.
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Sparklers and Fireworks
Sparklers, the handheld fireworks that emit colored flames, are incredibly popular on July 4, but they’re also the cause of a number of the holiday’s injuries, especially when it comes to kids. According a 2014 report from Consumer Product Safety Commission, sparklers accounted for 61 percent of all firework-related injuries in children under 5 — causing a total of 1,400 injuries in that age group from June 20 to July 20.
“The tip of a sparkler can get up to 1200 degrees Fahrenheit,” Scott Somers, a member of the Phoenix Fire Department, paramedic, and member of the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, tells Yahoo Parenting. “By comparison, water boils at 212 degrees, wood burns at 575, and glass melts at 900. People seem to understand that there are dangers when it comes to the fireworks you shoot up in the air, but there are a significant number of burn injuries that occur every year from sparklers.”
If you’re determined to add some sparkle to your celebration, remember that you’re playing with fire, literally. “If you are going to use fireworks to celebrate anything, you need to be smart and respect the fact that this is fire,” Somers says. “As long as you understand that you are using a tool that can burn you and you can lose fingers, you’ll take the proper precautions.”
Trust the pros. “Leave the fireworks to the professionals,” Somers says. “They are better that way anyway — bigger, more colorful and a lot safer.”
Stay grounded. If you’re going to use sparklers, choose the ones that just sit on the ground. Nothing that shoots in the air or explodes, Somers suggests. “Light them in an area that isn’t going to catch fire. Keep them out of wooded, dry areas, and instead choose parking lots, well-watered manicured lawns, or driveways.”
Children should look, not touch. “Don’t let children light sparklers,” Somers says. “They should only be handled by a competent adult. And read the instructions — they usually have a minimum safe distance that spectators should stand from the flame.” Even adults should wear goggles when lighting sparklers, and be sure to keep a bucket of water and first aid kit nearby.
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Pools and Beaches
Pool parties and beach barbecues mean kids will be spending a lot of time around the water this holiday, and the biggest danger, according to Nichole Steffens, the National Aquatic Product Manager for the American Red Cross and certified lifeguard and water safety instructor, is children finding their way to unsupervised swimming areas. The best way to prevent accidents is to teach kids to swim early, Steffens notes. “We start getting kids acquainted with water at 6 moths old,” she says. “It’s so important for everyone to learn how to swim, to be able to prevent these emergencies.” But that doesn’t mean your non-swimmers should be forced to stay home. Plus, she points out, even those familiar with water can have accidents. Put these precautions in place to avoid water accidents this weekend:
Designate a water watcher. “This is an adult whose sole responsibility is to keep focus on the pool ,” Steffens says. “That means they are sober, then know how to swim and how to perform CPR, and they are 100 percent concentrated on the water.” For parties, Steffens suggests water watchers take shifts, and says that if a kid in their late teens is a skilled swimmer, they can play the role, too. “We start training lifeguards at 15, so they could be the water watcher.”
Stay within arm’s reach. Parents of non-swimmers should practice what Steffens calls reach supervision. “Parents should always be an arms length away from non-swimmers, so if something does go wrong, they can be there in an instant,” she says. “Parents know their kids best, so they should know when it’s necessary to stay close. But for non-swimmers or swimmers, there should always be supervision nearby.”
Throw, don’t go. “For any type of water environment, parents should teach their children to reach or throw, don’t go,” Steffens says. “If a kid sees someone else struggling in the water, throw a floating object or reach something long out to them — no one should attempt a swimming rescue unless they are trained and have the proper equipment.”
Grills
Hot dogs and burgers might be the unofficial foods of July Fourth, but when it comes to barbecues, cooking should be left to the adults. “It’s a common theme — there should always be a competent adult on site watching and monitoring to make sure everybody is safe,” Somers says. “The big message is, it’s fire. You have to respect fire or it’s going to bite you. It is an unforgiving entity.”
Set up a serving station. “You want to set up your food in a different area so you don’t have kids pulling food right off the grill,” Somers says. “You can picture a kid coming over with his plate, somebody says ‘the hamburgers are ready’ and he just grabs it. It’s best to remove the food altogether, and get it to a picnic table. Accidents can happen, grills tip over if they aren’t stable, you don’t want that.”
Keep your grill clean. This goes especially for grilling outdoors or camping. “The barbecue really needs to be washed all the time,” Somers says. “Dispose of embers properly, soaking them in water.”
Cook in open areas. “Set up your grill way from house or deck or tree branches, ad always use the long-handle tools,” Somers says. “When you flip that hamburger, the fat that comes off it creates some flare ups, so you want to make sure kids are far away, and your hands are, too.”
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