Electrical injury in Thai children: Its epidemiology and prevention.

Electrical current can affect every organ system in the body as a result of heating eletrogenic changes. The clinical features following electric injury are described as local and general lesions. Electrical burns were common local electrical injury and mostly involved the hand. Fourty nine percent of electrical shock or loss or consciousness were found in this series which were general lesion; one of them was presented with brain lesion and recovered after 6 month-follow up. The incidence and causes of injury in various age-groups were as the following: the children under 3 years old placed their finger in the wall sockets; 4-6 years old put in or pulled cord plug; the 7-12 years old handled the faulty electrical equipment; the children over 12 years mostly began labour life that got electrical injury during working in an unsafe place and with carelessness. Electrical burns caused deformity, most common with the upper extremities. A proper, safe electrical equipment should necessarily be developed by the government, especially the cord plug and wall socket.

Occupational accident.

The study of 376 occupational workers who were accidentally injured on duty during October 1982 to September 1983 revealed that: (1) The male-female ratio was 6.2:1; (2) The higher proportion of those injured were 21-30 and 16-20 years old respectively; (3) Injury occurred during working hours (8.00 a.m. – 5.00 p.m.), with higher frequencies between 9.00 - 10.00 a. m. and 2.00 - 3.00 p. m.; (4) Most incidents occurred to those unskilled workers who completed only primary level education (87.2%), had previous occupation as farmers (42%) and came from rural area (85.4%), mostly the central and the northeast regions (56.6% and 31.4%) of Thailand; (5) Main causes of injury were due to working situation such as foreign body entering eyes accidentally occurred as the results of welding or rubbing or operating machines. These incidents demonstrated the lack of good preventative care for workers and the lack of concern of employers. It was obvious that eye and hand injuries occurred predominantly. In general, security welfare for these workers was relatively good, but for some, they had have to pay for themselves (27%).