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Sauna burns

From RUVARO Sauna Wiki

Sauna burns are thermal injuries of the skin suffered in or immediately around a sauna cabin. They are different in character from the heat-related circulatory problems described elsewhere in this encyclopaedia: rather than a failure of the whole body's cooling, they are local injuries caused by contact with hot surfaces or hot water and steam, and they are almost always preventable. Their causes in a sauna are the stove, its stones and surrounds, hot metal fittings, lamps, and the water used on the stones.

Types of sauna burn

Burns in the sauna setting take four common forms:

  • Contact burns from the stove and its surroundings — the stones, the casing, metal fixtures and the wood around the heater, which become hot in every burning sauna. Contact with such surfaces transfers heat very rapidly through the skin; the wood-burning stove delivers particularly high radiant and contact temperatures, while electric sauna heaters reach comparable surface temperatures on the stones and casing.
  • Scalds from hot water and steam — poured water, splashes from the hearth water bucket, and steam jets when water is thrown on the stones in a full cabin. Steam scalds are often deeper for a short exposure because steam transfers heat to the skin on condensing.
  • Radiant burns from prolonged close exposure to the open fire of a wood-burning sauna or, in extreme cases, the radiant heat of a stove without a guard.
  • Floor and bench burns in collapsed or sleeping bathers, who can lie against a hot surface for minutes (see Fainting in a sauna).

The depth of a burn depends on the temperature of the surface and the time of contact. The thermal-injury literature shows that skin begins to be damaged by sustained temperatures above roughly 43–44 °C, with the time needed for injury shrinking as the temperature rises — what is harmless for seconds at 44 °C becomes disabling in a fraction of a second at several hundred degrees, which is why a momentary touch of hot stove stones can already be serious. Children's skin is thinner and burns faster through the same contact, and older skin is slower to repair; both groups are treated with special caution in the cabin (see Children and sauna and Burn prevention in a sauna).

First aid

First aid follows current national guidance for burns and scalds, which is consistent across authorities. The injured area should be held under cool running water for about twenty minutes, started as soon as possible — within three hours of the injury. Clothing or jewellery near the wound should be removed unless stuck to it. Nothing should be applied to the wound: no creams, oils, butter, ice or lotions, and blisters should be left intact. A clean, non-adhesive layer, for example cling film, may be placed loosely over the cooled burn, but the wound should not be strapped with plasters or dressings. A burn that is large, deep, or on the face, genitals, hands or a joint should be seen at an emergency department; national guidance is to call emergency services (999 in the United Kingdom) for serious burns. WHO first-aid guidance adds the same essential steps and the same prohibitions for low-resource settings. The full sauna-specific sequence, including the role of facility staff, is described under First aid in a sauna and First aid in a wellness facility.

Prevention

Prevention is the practical heart of the subject. The main rules, common to manufacturer instructions, building guidance and facility practice, are:

  • Respect the Sauna safety distance: nothing flammable within the required clearance of the stove, and users warned about the heater zone. Guards and railings around the stove (heater guards) are the single most effective protection, especially where children bathe.
  • The stove and stones stay hot for a long time after the heating is switched off; a sauna that is "not in use" can still burn.
  • Water for the stones is poured from a safe height and position; the heart of throwing water should not be aimed at one another.
  • Slippers, towels and clean benches keep bare skin off hot wood; bathers sit on a towel.
  • Radiant heat from open wood fires demands a screen or distance (see Wood-burning sauna stove) and adds the separate risk of Carbon monoxide poisoning in a sauna from the fire itself.
  • Supervision: children must not be in the cabin without an adult, and staff of a facility check cabin temperature and the state of guards before public use (see Sauna supervision and Child safety in a sauna).

Burns account for an appreciable share of sauna injuries precisely because they are the injury type that a well-run facility can eliminate by layout, distance and care: the cabin itself is designed around the stove (Sauna construction), the required clearances are part of the applicable standards, and the facility's Sauna risk assessment covers the heater zone as a standing item.

See also

References

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