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Beware of burn risk
By Dr. Wijaya Godakumbura
While food, clothing and temporary group shelter were the immediate needs following the tsunami, the emphasis now is on providing individual houses to the affected families. Attention has to be paid to the avoidance of kerosene burn injuries among them.

Over 100,000 temporary and permanent houses are now coming up. In temporary houses, lighting would have to be with kerosene lamps. Kerosene burn injuries that kill around 140 and maim thousands every year, have been the concern of the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation for the past thirteen years. Some people living in houses without electricity do use safe kerosene lamps like chimney lamps, but many use cheap unsafe ones. Even in houses with electricity, these unsafe lamps are used in the kitchen to set the firewood alight, and also when there are power failures.

These lamps topple easily and as they have no screw -on wick carriers, the flammable oil and the wick are thrown out causing huge fires and serious burn injuries. A single moment of inattention is enough to cause disaster.

Sometimes it is a cat that would topple a lamp! Therefore, it is imperative to eliminate possible fire risks to the tsunami victims who have suffered enough already. Having survived an unpreventable nightmare connected with water, getting maimed or losing one's life in a preventable fire accident would be extremely tragic and unthinkable.

It would be a fall from the 'frying pan to the fire', or rather, from tsunami waves to the fire! It did happen though in Indonesia to an eight-month-old child (see box story). The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation uses recycled glass to keep the production cost low, and sells its lamps slightly below cost, as those who need them are the poorest in the country.

The foundation appeals to state organizations and NGOs as well as small groups of people in towns and villages who are funding and supervising the construction of houses for tsunami victims to purchase the 'Sudeepa' safe lamps and give two to each family when handing over the keys.

For more details, contact:
The Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation,
National Hospital of Sri Lanka, Colombo
Phone and Fax : 2674847
e-mail: safelam@sltnet.lk
(The writer is a Consultant Surgeon and President of the Safe Bottle Lamp Foundation.)

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