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Thermostatic Mixing Valves and the Domestic Market: The Facts - ISSUE 2'.

'Thermostatic Mixing Valves and the Domestic Market: The Facts - ISSUE 1'..

Fit Thermostats to Baths and Save Lives, Says MP
The Telegraph, Thursday 30th March 2006

All new baths should be fitted with thermostats to reduce the number of people seriously scalded by hot water, a Labour MP said yesterday.

Such devices would add £80 to the cost of a bath but would save up to 20 lives a year, said Mary Creagh, the MP for Wakefield.

According to government figures, more than 400 children and 200 adults are treated in hospital each year for burns after falling into hot water at home. Many need years of painful skin grafts and are left permanently disfigured.

'Every day a child under five is admitted to hospital with horrific scalding injuries,' said Miss Creagh. 'Twenty people a year, including 15 pensioners, will die as a result of those injuries.'

Yesterday she tabled a Private Member's Bill proposing that thermostatic mixing valves be fitted to all new baths. The valves are built into the bath and cannot be overridden, making it impossible to fill a bath with water hotter than 48°C (118°F).

Many domestic boilers are set to at least 60°C to kill bacteria. At that temperature bath water causes serious burns in just three minutes.

"At 65 degrees, water can burn through skin in two seconds flat. Hot water burns like fire, it burns like acid," she said.

She denied that the proposals were another example of the "nanny state", insisting that they would save the NHS millions of pounds. "If we look at the cost of a valve at £80 and the lifetime cost of treating a burn injury, which is £250,000 - leaving aside the skin grafts, the time spent in wheelchairs and the creams that the child has to apply for the rest of their life and the scarring that they have - I think it is a very important thing to do," she said.

'This will not stop people having hot baths', she added. 'You can't sit in water at 48°C without getting third degree burns.'

Scotland is introducing a similar law in May following a campaign from burns victims. Canada, New Zealand and Australia have similar rules.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced a consultation on thermostats for baths in 2004, but has yet to publish its findings.

The family of a girl who was badly scalded after falling into a hot bath at the age of five has backed the campaign.

Julie Dunphy said when she pulled out her daughter Holly her legs looked as if they had been 'dipped in acid'.

Holly, of Rhyhill near Wakefield, had a seven-hour operation to graft skin from stomach to legs, spent six weeks in hospital and will be scarred for life. Now aged 10, she may need further treatment until she stops growing.

'People don't understand how dangerous hot water can be and what it can do to a child's skin,' said her mother.

Dr Alan Phipps, a plastic surgeon at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield, said: 'In the last year we have seen 14 children with severe scalds from bath water.'

The campaign is supported by Age Concern, the British Burns Association and the Child Accident Prevention Trust.

However, Conservative MP Peter Luff said people should take responsibility for themselves and there should be an assistance scheme for the vulnerable.

'It's often said that the state should keep out of the bedroom - it's my view the state should keep out of the bathroom as well,' he told MPs.

The Bill gained its formal first reading yesterday but stands little chance of becoming law because of the lack of parliamentary time.

Last year the Government faced 'nanny state' criticism over regulations to prevent amateur DIY enthusiasts carrying out electrical work at home. Four years ago it banned homeowners from replacing broken windows unless they got a certificate from the local building control department to show the job had been done properly.