Your Cart
£0.00
Top 5 Most Common Accidents That Occur In The Kitchen
You might not really think about it, but the kitchen can be a dangerous place – it is the one room in the house that offers up so many ways of hurting yourself, whether it be the knives, boiling water, electricity or burning yourself on the hob. If you don’t take care, you are going to get hurt.
The problem however, is that the kitchen is also place for a lot of wonderful things. It can be a place for creation, an area for all your favorite foods and a place to socialise. Therefore not everyone thinks about the dangers as they enter the kitchen. It is used near enough every day, a few times a day, so why bother thinking about the dangers? These moments of auto-pilot is when accidents occur.
Here at Appliance city we have come up with a top 5 list of accidents that occur in the kitchen; some of them will completely surprise you. Read on to find out how to prevent them ever occurring in the first place!
1 – Cutting your hand when slicing a bagel.
You may not have thought it, but many studies have shown that cutting your hand on a bagel is a very common kitchen based injury. In fact, it has it’s own medical acronym called BRI’s (Bagel-related injuries)! It mainly occurs when people hold the bagel wrong, going straight through the bagel and into their hand. Ouch!
The ‘correct’ way to slice a bagel (if there is one) is to lay it flat on your kitchen surface whilst keeping it steady with your hand. Using a serrated bread knife, slice the bagel horizontally, keeping the knife parallel to the work surface. Who knew that this much work was needed for cutting a bagel?!
2 – Slipping in spilled liquids
Spilling liquids is a simple enough mistake. You probably do it a hundred times without ever having an accident. I mean, who hasn’t forgotten about a boiling pan? Or splashed water everywhere whilst washing up? Or moved too quickly with a pan of pasta sauce? In the kitchen it’s easy to get distracted and forget about the spill, then someone has an accident.
Of course the simple option is to clean up spills as soon as they are created. It prevents a silly accident that can cause serious injury. If you struggle to always remember doing that, then keep a few dish cloths on the side so that they’re always close to hand.
3 – Skin contact when cooking with chilli peppers
Another surprising one is chilli peppers. They’re a really popular choice when cooking but if not prepared with caution they can create really uncomfortable and painful accidents. Chillies, while delicious, have natural oils in them that result in intense burning with anything they come into contact with. Fingers, eyes, face, a chilli is not kind to anyone. To prevent this occurring, you can do simple things like wearing rubber gloves. If you don’t like the thought of cooking in gloves, then you can coat your hands in vegetable oil before chopping which will also stop the burning.
Once chopped, wash your hands immediately with warm soapy water. If you do manage to get the chilli oil on you, coat the area in milk, yoghurt or just warm water to numb the pain. A top tip is to ensure you never touch your eyes when working with chillis. It will turn into a very painful evening!
4 – Getting a nick when washing up
Washing-up dishes is a monotonous but very much needed activity (unless you have the luxury of a dishwasher). But washing up can be one of the most common accidents in the kitchen. You pay much attention before or after you wash up, however this creates the chance you’re not going to be fully attentive. A stray knife or chipped plate can easily be the cause of an accident.
Apart from paying attention to what you’re doing, the easy way to prevent this is by washing your sharp objects first and don’t let knives into the sink.
5 – Burning yourself
We’ve all done it, you’re cooking away and suddenly you’ve got a burn. You accidentally touch a hot pan, boiling water splashes or hot oil spits at you. There’s hundreds of ways accidental burns happen in the kitchen, from minor small burns to setting clothes on fire. Burns are certainly the most common accident that occurs in the kitchen.
Of course setting clothes on fire is only going to happen on rarest of occasions, whereas minor burns can happen every time you cook. There’s not much you can go about minor burns apart from having reliable oven mitts. But with large burns and fires, you can prevent by turning off the oven & stove when you’re not using them. Have a fire extinguisher in the house for emergencies, and you always smother a grease fire. And if you have a burn accident, submerge the burn in cool water for at least twenty minutes. This will reduce the heat coming from under the skin.
And there you have it. The five top most common accidents that happen in a kitchen. Please make sure to pay attention and be aware of your surroundings in the kitchen, as it may prevent a serious accident or injury.
It’s also always a good idea to have up-to-date appliances, so they don’t have a fault which may add to an accident. Browse our website or give us a call on 0115 965 1937.
