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Kitchens can be especially dangerous places.
There are a plethora of sharp objects and cooking appliances that give off large amounts of heat.
It's really important to practice good safety everywhere, but when it comes to the kitchen you should pay extra attention.
Especially if you have young children.
Here are 10 tips for ensuring safety in the kitchen:
Make sure to put childproof locks on all cabinets, cupboards and cooking appliances.
Keep any cloth materials like towels and oven mitts away from cooking appliances. Also, make sure they're not dangling over the edge of the counter-top to prevent children from pulling something down on their heads.
Don't leave pots or pans cooking on the stove when you leave the kitchen. A cooker left on without supervision has potential to cause fires and damage to your home.
Make sure all appliances and their plugs are cleaned and maintained to prevent accidental fires. Frayed cables and broken plugs need replacing as soon as possible.
Use a junction box in your kitchen instead of an extension cord. Extension cords take up space and introduce a new trip hazard into the kitchen.
Make sure you can tackle a fire in the case of an accident by always keep a small fire extinguisher close to your kitchen.
When cooking make sure there are no handles showing over the counter-top. Inquisitive children are known to jump and grab whatever they can. Scalding in this way is a common cause of injury in the kitchen.
Clean up spillages immediately too prevent slipping.
If you need to reach items in your cabinets that are too high, use a stepping stool to prevent injury, or knocking something out of the cabinet.
Ensure you know what you're doing with the knives you are using:
Always, always cut in the direction away from your body.
Always use a chopping board.
Keep your knives clean, and ensure the handle is dry when you're using it.
Keep your knives sharp to avoid pitting in the blade which will cause any cuts to be worse than normal.
If you accidentally drop a knife, do not try to catch it. Step back and let it fall.
When cleaning always keep the sharp blade pointing away from you. Also, try not to place knives into pre-prepared washing water. If there are too many soap suds you will not see the knife and risk cutting yourself.
You might think that the COSHH Risk Assessor Certification™ won't help you... but you'd be wrong. Many of the things I teach in my course can be applied to almost any situation at work or in your own home.
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