Strong burn center joins national effort

he Strong Regional Burn Center has joined forces with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and 115 burn centers nationwide in an initiative to collect data about clothing-related burns to children under age 15, a serious medical issue that many experts say deserves greater attention.

Using the new National Burn Center Reporting System, Strong and other burn centers will report incidents in which a child's clothing is believed to play a part in a burn injury. The CPSC will then assign an investigator to the case to conduct an in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding the injury.

"This tool will give safety experts much-needed information that was previously not available to better document and understand the nature and cause of clothing- related burn injuries to children," says Christopher Lentz, director of the Strong Regional Burn Center.

"Until now, we've relied on rough estimates and anecdotes to give us a sense of the scope of the issue. This new system should give researchers confidence that clothing-related burns to children will be well documented and ultimately will form the basis for reducing childhood burns."

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