PREVENTABLE BURNS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MISUSE OF GASOLINE

Gasoline is intended for use as a motor fuel, but the universal availa bility of gasoline in the home encourages misuse as a solvent, insecti cide, accelerant or cleaning solution. The careless or inappropriate u se of gasoline may result in burn injury. We examined the circumstance of gasoline-related injury in a population admitted to one burn centr e to determine the potential for burn prevention efforts. A retrospect ive review of all burn admissions to one centre for the years 1978 to 1996 demonstrated hat 1011 of 4339 acute admissions (23.3%) were gasol ine-related. This group had an average total burn size of 29,8% total body surface (TBSA) and an average full thickness injury of 14.3% TBSA . There were 144 fatalities resulting from gasoline-associated burn in jury. Where such determination could be made, the use of gasoline was judged to be inappropriate or unsafe in 657 of 788 cases (57.1%). Nine ty of 144 fatalities (62.5%) were associated with inappropriate or uns afe use of gasoline. The careless or inappropriate use of gasoline pos es significant risk of burn injury. The indoor use of gasoline, as wel l as use of gasoline for purposes other than as a motor fuel, should b e strongly discouraged. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISBI. All ri ghts reserved.