Four Common Causes of Burn Injury

Any damage caused to your body tissues due to chemicals, sunlight, radiation, electricity, or heat is called a burn injury. These are the most complicated and painful injuries that affect your blood vessels, bones, nerves, and muscles along with your skin.

What Are the Four Common Causes of Burn Injury?

Here are the four major causes of burn injuries:

• Electricity
• Heat
• Inhalation
• Chemical

1. Inhalation Burn

Inhalation of harmful gases, smoke, or vapors can lead to inhalation burns. Besides, these injuries are highly detrimental but, unfortunately, are not visible as the symptoms are internal.
Some symptoms of inhalation burns to look out for are:

• Facial or neck burns
• Airway obstruction or a compromised respiratory system
• Burnt eyebrow, nasal hair, and eyelashes
• Loss of consciousness
• Presence of soot around nose and mouth

2. Electrical Burn

Electricity passing through your body can lead to an electrical burn. In addition, the body’s resistance to electricity leads to the accumulation of heat in the body. So, these types of burns create entry and exit wounds, with most damage under the skin.
These are the three primary reasons for electrical burns:

• Touching a live wire
• Children inserting their fingers into open electrical sockets
• Lightning

Furthermore, these burns are more severe if the victim is near a TV-based broadcasting or radio antenna.
Four factors that determine the intensity of electrical burns and are:

• Current
• Voltage
• The electricity pathway
• Resistance

These burns are rather severe as they cause internal injuries such as brain shock, heart strain, and damage to other internal organs.

3. Thermal Burns

Exposure to extreme heat often causes the thermal burn. Approximately 30,000 patients are admitted annually, with over 86% of their accounts for thermal burns.
Furthermore, homes and workplaces are familiar places where people primarily suffer from thermal burns.

Four significant categories of thermal burns are:

• Scalds – due to contact with hot liquids like grease, oil, water
• Flash – due to the explosion of flammable liquids such as propane, gasoline, natural gas, etc.
• Flame– due to ignited flammable liquids, house fires, or automobile accidents
• Smoking or heating devices – due to touching scorching devices or machines

So. temperature and duration of exposure are the prime factors determining the intensity of thermal burns.

4. Chemical Burns

Many chemicals around us are highly toxic, and their frequent or prolonged exposure may lead to chemical burns. In addition, the exposure of your body tissues to bases or acids with/without heat can cause chemical burns. And this can happen anywhere and anytime.
The symptoms of chemical burns are:

• Serious skin damage
• They are not always painful
• May occur below the skin
• They are not always visible.

Furthermore, the severity depends on the time and length of the exposure to chemicals and their concentration levels.
So, quickly washing away the chemical prevents excessive damage to your body tissues.

Common Causes for Chemical Burns

The most common causes of alkalis burns are:

• Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are used to clean drainage systems
• Sodium hypochlorite and calcium hypochlorite are used to clean pool water
• Phosphates and Ammonia

The most common causes of acid burns are:

• Nitric acid is used widely in industries
• Hydrochloric acid
• Sulfuric acid, which is present in many cleaning products
• Hydrofluoric acid that’s used for cleaning and industrial purposes

Can I Claim to Burn Injury Compensation?

It’s not easy to determine the exact cause of the burn and how the other person is responsible.
Appointing a personal injury lawyer in Burbank helps in assessing a valid claim.
They have the experience, skillset, and relevant resources to handle complex burn injury cases and give clear insights. And to most importantly, help you get justice and your compensation.