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As this table
demonstrates, a safe and comfortable temperature for bathing is about 100°F (38°C). When water gets much hotter, most of us
soon get uncomfortable. The time and temperature combinations on this slide
show the scald injury risk from hot water for healthy adults. Research has
shown that it would take up to 5 minutes’ exposure before water at 120°F (48°C)
would cause a serious burn to a normal adult. The higher the temperature, the
less time it would take to cause such a burn.
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The point to
emphasize here is that researchers set these standards for normally
healthy adults. They didn’t modify this estimate for young children or
older adults, whose skin is much thinner.
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You can imagine how hard it would be
to do such a study. Our only experience with temperatures at which hot water
injures those with thinner skin has come from measuring hot water after a
scald injury has occurred. It’s not enough to provide separate time and
temperature estimates for scald injury to people in these groups.
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(Bridge) The
following slide shows how exposure to hot water can cause a serious scald
injury.
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