Elsevier

Burns

Volume 29, Issue 5, August 2003, Pages 469-472
Burns

Work-related burn injuries in Ontario, Canada: has anything changed in the last 10 years?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-4179(03)00063-9Get rights and content

Abstract

Background: Many burn injuries occur in the workplace. Previous research from this institution 10 years ago analyzed the incidence and nature of occupation-related burns admitted to our facility.

Purpose: To compare the current incidence and patterns of work-related burn injuries treated at our adult regional burn center (Current group) with the findings of a similar study 10 years ago (Early group).

Methods: Retrospective study of all burn center admissions between 5 December 1998 and 31 December 2000 was completed. The data from the Early and Current groups was analyzed using the Chi-square test of homogeneity.

Results: During the study period, 355 patients were hospitalized. After exclusions, 100 occupational burn cases were identified (28%). The mean age of patients was 39±12 years, 90% were male. The mean total body surface area (TBSA) burn was 11±13.7%. The most common mechanism of burn was electrical (32%), followed by flame (22%), scald (17%), tar (14%), contact (8%), and chemical (7%). Four patients (4%) died of their injuries. There were no significant differences between the Current group and the Early group in terms of incidence, age, gender, occupation, mechanism of burn, or mortality.

Conclusion: In the past 10 years no change was found in the incidence or pattern of work-related burn injuries treated at this institution. This suggests that existing prevention strategies have not been effective.

Introduction

A significant proportion of burn injuries occur in the workplace. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) in the Province of Ontario, Canada, reported a total of 2226 work-related burn injuries in 2000 [1]. From an economic perspective, work-related injuries account for one-third of the total economic cost from injuries in the United States [2]. Moreover, 75% of burn survivors continue to be unemployed one-year post burn [3]. Work-related burn injuries, in particular, pose an economic burden since most of them disrupt the working ability of the major household provider. The long recovery period and complicated morbidity associated with work-related burns also contribute to the high cost of rehabilitation [4].

Although some studies have found that educational prevention programs for workers in high-risk occupations, particularly in the 25–35-year age range, may prevent a significant number of work-related burn injuries [5], other studies have concluded that occupational burns constitute a problem that persists despite efforts to increase worker safety [6].

A previously published study has looked at patients with occupational burn injuries admitted to our regional burn unit in the province of Ontario [4]. While this study described only a selected subset of patients with work-related burn injuries (i.e. those admitted to our burn center), it provided a useful “snapshot” of the overall composition of more severe burn etiologies in the province of Ontario in 1991.

Since that study was published, it has become apparent that an update might be instructive in seeing whether or not there has been any change in the incidence and pattern of work-related burn injuries treated at our burn center. The purpose of this study was to determine the current incidence and patterns of work-related burn injuries treated at our adult regional burn center and to directly compare this data with that of the earlier study.

Section snippets

Methods

This research study was approved by the Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre’s Research Ethics Board. A retrospective review of the records of all adult patients with work-related burn injuries admitted to our adult regional burn center between 5 December 1998 and 31 December 2000 was carried out. Patients with non-work-related burn injuries, reconstructive cases, and patients with pathology other than burn injuries (e.g. toxic epidermal necrolysis, necrotizing fasciitis) were

Results

Between 2 December 1998 and 31 December 2000, 355 burn patients were admitted to our burn center. Of this number, 255 were excluded from the analysis because they were non-work-related injuries, leaving a study population of 100 work-related burn patients (28%).

The mean age of patients was 38.8±12.0 years. Ninety percent of patients were male. Fifty-two percent of the patients came from our immediate urban area, while 48% came from small towns and rural parts of the province. Seventy-three

Discussion

In this retrospective study, 28% of all admissions to our adult regional burn center were as a result of a workplace accident. This is nearly identical to the incidence of admissions for workplace burns observed over 10 years ago at this institution. The data presented in this study concern cases of burn injury severe enough to be referred to a regional burn center and therefore represent a selected subset of the overall burn injury population in the Province of Ontario. While we recognize that

References (20)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (42)

  • Epidemiology of work-related burn injuries presenting to burn centres in Australia and New Zealand

    2019, Burns
    Citation Excerpt :

    Internationally, studies have been undertaken in a range of settings, including the US, Europe, Canada, South America and China, using case level data from workers compensation claims datasets [16,17], specialised burn centres [18] and emergency department records [19]. Some have reported on particular types of burns [20,21], others on fatal burn injuries only [22], with the reported proportions of work-related burns in adult burn populations ranging from 24 to 31% [18,19,23]. A systematic review of European epidemiological studies of severe burn injuries in Europe reported that overall, one third of severe adult burns were work-related [24].

  • Work-related burn injuries in Ontario, Canada: A follow-up 10-year retrospective study

    2013, Burns
    Citation Excerpt :

    The aim of this study is to build on two previous studies conducted at the regional burn centre on work-related burns. The first study was a 6 year retrospective report from 1984 to 1990 [19], and the second a 10 year study from 1999 to 2000 [3]. The second study compared the incidence and pattern of burn injuries with the initial report and found that there was no change in the past 10 years.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text