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A common construction accident that gives rise to personal injury occurs when building site workers spill or fall into hot tar or asphalt that is being used for road-surfacing, roofing or waterproofing. Paving bitumen (asphalt) and roofing tar are heated to temperatures of 140 and 232 degrees centigrade respectively. When tar splatters it cools rapidly to between 93 and 104 degrees, but this is still hot enough to inflict serious burns.
According to a Dutch tissue management study, published in 2004, headed by Pascal Steenvoorde, most tar burn accidents happen on building sites to active young males aged between 27-33 years. Most burns occur on the upper extremities and hands. Roofing accidents have the potential to cause deeper burns as the tar is heated to a higher temperature than bitumen.
If tar is on the skin, immediate action is required to cool the hot substance. If possible plunge the limb into cold water, if this is not possible hosing the tar or pouring cold water is an adequate cooling treatment. However, do not allow the accident victim to become too cold as shock or hypothermia may become an issue.
The Dutch case report looks at the efficacy of using commercially available butter as an alternative to the standard practice of manual debridement (removal of the affected burnt tissue) for tar removal from skin.
A 35-year-old man presented to an emergency department with hot tar burns as a result of a roofing accident. The tar had been cooled immediately in a bucket of water. The injury took the form of a second degree burn with open blisters partially covered in tar.
Health practitioners cooled the wound with water for a further 15 minutes, but this made no impact on the tar.
The decision was taken to use butter for the tar removal procedure.
Using gloves, butter was applied to the tar with gentle rubbing action for 15 minutes until the tar appeared dissolved. A dry dressing was used to remove the butter/tar residue by absorption. The patient did not complain of experiencing pain during the removal and no pain-killers were required. The wound was treated with silver sulfadiazine and dressed with a non-absorbent dressing. Further treatment was halted after two weeks as the burn had healed well. The patient regained normal function in his hand.
If you have suffered a hot tar burn, YouClaim advise you to seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Construction accident compensation and hot tar burns
If you have received personal injury as a result of a construction accident that was not your fault, you may be able to claim compensation with YouClaim.
Our UK no win no fee solicitors are experts in their fields and all work to the demanding standards set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. We guarantee that you won't be charged for our services and that you will receive 100% of the compensation awarded to you. If your claim is unsuccessful you will not be charged.
If you would like to talk to one of our friendly helpline advisors, please call our free UK helpline on 0800 10 757 95. If you would like to choose a more suitable time, we can call you back later.
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