PETROL - SOMETHING NASTY IN THE WOODSHED - A REVIEW OF GASOLINE-RELATED BURNS IN A BRITISH BURNS UNIT

Petrol (gasoline) is probably the fuel most easily available and widel y in use today. Indeed, most households have a can lurking in the gard en shed or basement For domestic we. it's chemical properties make it a highly explosive as well as a combustible Fluid, a fact that is some times poorly appreciated. We looked at the incidence of petrol-related burns seen in our unit over a 2-year period. Nearly 33 per cent of th e adult male admissions were petrol-related and 76 per cent were in ch ildren under the age of 76 years. The commonest cause of injury was at tempting to start or accelerate a bonfire (38 per cent) with only a sm all number of barbecue injuries (4 per cent). Petrol causes ct signifi cant number of burn injuries a year, and particularly worrying were th e number of children injured. However we feel there is a need for grea ter public education and perhaps stricter control of this substance.