Burning Issue of Hair Appliance

Heart's discovered that more than a hundred children in the South West have suffered serious burns from hair straighteners in the past five years... And countless others have been treated for minor injuries.

The shocking figure of 110 very badly burnt young children, has been released by the South West Regional Paediatric Burns Service. It operates from Frenchay hospital in Bristol and deals with the very worst cases from the region.

The hospital says many more children have been seen by minor injury units in local hospitals or treated at home for minor burns.

The problems is that hair straighteners can reach temperatures of up to 230 degrees.  A burn from this heat can leave children permanently scarred, as their skin is up to fifteen times thinner than adults.

NHS services have released pictures of them being used to cook breakfast on, to show how hot the metal plates can get. And the metal plates can stay hot for ages after they've been switched off, which is when most of the burns happen

Sian's a mum of two young boys, whose three year old son has touched her hair straighteners and burned himself, although not seriously.

She says it's easy to forget how hot they can get. And how long it takes for them to cool down.

Sian's been talking to our reporter Carrian Jones  CLICK HERE

The advice to avoid burns from hair straighteners is to switch them off straight after use, put them in a heat resistant pouch and keep them well out of the reach of children.