Molten metal burn of the foot: A preventable injury

A Burn Injury Due To 800 Degrees Molten Aluminum

“…Molten metal burn of the feet among foundry workers has first been described by Pap (Himel et al, 1992). The case report involved three patients, that all three workers suffered from full thickness burn injuries requiring skin grafts, only one required amputation of the distal phalanx of one toe.…”

“…The mechanism is that the molten metal is spilled onto the shoe gaining access via the top of the boot or seeping around the tongue but the typical accident was that of a splatter spill, causing a full thickness burn injury (Marqulies et al, 1998). The collection of molten metal in the shoe prolongs thermal contact insuring the development of deep partial-thickness or full-thickness burn injury (Himel et al, 1992).…”

“…The molt temperatures range from 760°C to 1400°C (Grube et al, 1987;Himel et al, 1992). Molten metal burns remain an industrial injury among workers in foundries especially (Himel et al, 1992).…”

“…The second method of injury occurs when the molten metal burns through the leather of the protective footwear. Because considerable heat is outspreated as the molten metal burns through the leather, the underlying burn injury is usually superficial (Himel et al, 1992;Marqulies et al, 1998).…”

“…The most commonly injuried areas were the lower extremities (Marqulies et al, 1998). The magnitude of burn injury depends on the mechanism of injury, which affects duration of heat contact (Himel et al, 1992). Aluminum metal tends not to adhere to the skin, but will run downward along the extremity without sufficient contact time to create deep burns (Boss and Arons, 1982).…”