Urgent hot water bottle warning as hospitals see rise in injuries
Hospitals report spike in hot water bottle burns
- Hot water bottle burn injuries have significantly increased, with figures almost doubling in five years to 978 cases between 2023 and 2024, marking the highest annual total in over two decades.
- The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is urging the public to exercise caution, advising checks on bottle age and condition, and to avoid overfilling.
- Ken Dunn from the Children’s Burns Trust warned against using hot water bottles for children and stressed never to fill them with boiling water, recommending replacement of bottles older than two years.
- The British Standards Institution (BSI) has reinstated its national committee to review and update the hot water bottle standard in response to growing safety concerns.
- RoSPA's head of policy, Adrian Simpson, is chairing the BSI standards committee to improve product safety and advises the public to follow simple safety steps to prevent injuries.