February 11, 2004

U-M Health System joins forces with U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to study burns related to children’s clothing

ANN ARBOR, MI -When parents dress their children for bed at night, they frequently choose sleepwear that is comfortable or made of natural products such as cotton pajamas, sweats, or T-shirts.

But what they should be asking is, will it protect their child from serious injury or death from burns? The University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center is partnering with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to study burn injuries related to children’s clothing.

According to the CPSC, children are at most risk for burn injuries from playing with fire around bedtime or soon after rising in the morning.

“Children are fascinated by fire. They will often sneak candles, matches or lighters into their bedrooms to play with after their parents have kissed them goodnight,” said Karla Ahrns, BSN, RN, CCRP, clinical research coordinator for the U-M Trauma Burn Center. “Flame resistant sleepwear is designed to reduce injuries occurring from this type of scenario. Garments meet flame resistance regulations if they do not continue to burn after coming in brief contact with a small flame source like matches or lighters.”

The U.S. had stringent sleepwear flammability standards for over 20 years, requiring all children’s sleep attire to be flame resistant. However, in the late 1990s, the CPSC amended the regulations to allow non-flame resistant sleepwear as long as it was “snug-fitting” and to have no restrictions on infant sleepwear under size 9 months.

This relaxation in flammability standards was in response to consumer non-compliance in the interest of using natural fiber garments. Do these amendments increase the risk of burn injuries to children? This is the question a new reporting system hopes to answer. The U-M Trauma Burn Center has joined the CPSC and about 115 burn centers nationwide in an initiative aimed at collecting data about serious clothing-related burns to children under age 15.

The CPSC’s new National Burn Center Reporting System is a cooperative effort of the U-M Trauma Burn Center, the American Burn Association, Shriners Hospitals for Children, and the National Association of State Fire Marshals. Under the new system, burn centers nationwide will report to the commission any incidents in which a child’s clothing is believed to play a part in a burn injury.

“We report any incidents that include the ignition, melting or smoldering of any apparel worn by children, not just sleepwear,” said Ahrns, who is coordinating the project for the U-M Trauma Burn Center. “We will be working closely with Michigan fire marshals, fire departments, EMS, and community hospitals to retrieve and preserve for the commission children’s clothing involved in burn injuries.”

“One of our top priorities is to keep families safe from fires,” said Hal Stratton, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. “We want sound science
and solid data to be the basis for decisions we make on regulatory strategies. The National Burn Center Reporting System will give us a more complete picture of the most serious clothing-related burns to children and help us prevent or reduce burn incidents in the future. We’re grateful for the involvement of University of Michigan Trauma Burn Center.”

“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,” said Paul Taheri, M.D., MBA, medical director of the Trauma Burn Center. “We share the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s goal to keep families safe from fires.”

The U-M Trauma Burn Center is a verified Burn Center and Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons. The Trauma Burn Center encourages parents to teach young children that fire and fire tools are for adults to use, keep matches and lighters out of reach in high, ideally locked, cabinets, and set a good example by using matches, lighters and fire carefully. Choose sleepwear with flame resistant labels, and avoid dressing children in loose-fitting garments.

For more information, visit www.traumaburn.org or contact Steffanie Samuels, Director of Marketing and Communications, 734-763-7757 or email at ssamuels@umich.edu

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