Burns and other injuries

Initial treatment of casualties of an explosion or blast is the same as for those with injuries from motor vehicle accidents, gunshots, falls, burns, and other major traumatic mechanisms. Vaughan (2005, n.p.) states the immediate focus in the event of an explosion is maintaining life and limb. The principles of Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Advanced Burn Life Support (ABLS), Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS), and Advanced Ttauma Care for Nurses (ATCN) should also be applied in this situation. Each of these certification programs discusses assessment in reference to primary and secondary surveys, progressing... 

Burns, scalds, and other injuries by the possible contact of persons with objects or materials with an extreme high or low temperature, by flames or explosions, and also by the radiation of heat sources... 

In one incident, a man was draining water, through a 2-in.-diameter line, from a small distillation column rundown tank containing benzene. He left the water running for a few minutes to attend to other jobs. Either there was less water than usual or he was away longer than expected. He returned to find benzene running out of the drain line. Before he could close it, the benzene was ignited by the furnace which heated the distillation column. The operator was badly burned and died from his injuries. 

Team sports, such as volleyball or softball, are other options for increasing activity levels. A person engaging in any strenuous exercise should take caution at first, so as to not strain the body and cause injury. Table 8.1 lists some activities that can help a person expend energy and burn off calories. 

The PSM Rule requires all PrHAs to address "any previous incident which had a likely potential for catastrophic consequences in the workplace," 29 CFR 1910.119(e)(3)(ii). An incident is an unplanned event that may or may not result in injuries and/or loss. For example, an incident might involve a flammable gas leak that does not ignite. An accident, on the other hand, is an unplanned event that actually leads to personal injury, property damage, environmental damage, and/or business interruption losses, such as the ignition of a flammable gas leak resulting in burns and fire damage. 

Two plant operators were filling a tank car with vinyl acetate. One operator was on the ground, and the other was on top of the car with the nozzle end of a loading hose. A few seconds after the loading operation started, the contents of the tank exploded. The operator on top of the tank was thrown to the ground he sustained a fractured skull and multiple body burns and died from these injuries. 

Eventually, Buscher experimented on human volunteers. Like Cullumbine, he found that, when a drop of H is placed on skin, the initial reaction appears in about 2 h. Vesication begins in about 24 h, but healing does not begin until after about 4 wk, and later for severe burns. Buscher wrote "There are also irreparable, permanent injuries.. . . Cicatricial contractures are very frequent sequelae.. . . Following severe wounds this scarring is very extensive so that there can be no question of complete recovery." In all cases of extensive burns from mustard gas, careful and extended treatment is required to prevent infection and other complications. 

Patients with burns, nerve damage or neuromuscular disease, closed head injury, and other trauma can respond to succinylcholine by releasing potassium into the blood, which, on rare occasions, results in cardiac arrest. 

In a retrospective study of 148 cases of occupational eye injuries in Germany, ocular bums (not specified as chemical or other etiology) comprised 15.5% of the total [10]. In another German study of 101 patients with 131 severely burned eyes, 72.3% of the injuries were work-related, 84.2% were chemical injuries, and 79.8% of these were due to alkalis [11], Of 42 cases of alkali ocular bums admitted to a German eye clinic between 1985 and 1992, 73.8% involved industrial accidents [19]. In Finland in 1973,11.9% of all industrial accidents were ocular injuries and bums comprised 3.6% of these (chemical or other injury mechanism not specified) [12]. A 7-year retrospective Australian study of 182 industrial bums found that 5.5% were ocular bums due to chemicals, gas explosions, and electric flashes (percentages not specified) [30]. In a 4-year hospital-based study in Taiwan, of 486 patients with eye injuries, 39.9% were work-related [20]. Chemical ocular bums accounted for 19.6% of these injuries [20],... 

Patients with burns, nerve damage or neuromuscular disease, closed head injury, and other trauma can respond to succinylcholine by an exaggerated release of potassium into the blood, occasionally resulting in cardiac arrest. As a result of the cardiac arrests (presumably caused by hyperkalemia), the Food and Drug Administration recommended in 1993 that succinylcholine no longer be used in children. However, this highly controversial contraindication was subsequently modified to a simple warning because no acceptable alternative to succinylcholine was available for rapid-sequence inductions. 

A fire of celluloid film that became a news item in Japan in recent years occurred in the National Modem Museum J). The fire, at about 14 47 on September 3, 1984, was caused by the spontaneous ignition of nitrocellulose films in the film storeroom on the fifth floor of the museum. The fire damaged a considerable number of the 3,000 reels of foreign movies that were stored there. On December 16, 1932, a disastrous fire caused by the burning of celluloid toys on a counter of Shirakiya Department Store resulted in the death of 14 saleswomen who could not escape and the injury of 21 other people. 

---