Overview
- Data from the Children’s Burns Trust and iBID show 978 hot water bottle injuries in 2024, an 11% rise on 2023 and roughly double since 2019, marking the highest annual total in more than two decades.
- RoSPA urges users to follow key steps, including applying a two‑year replacement guideline, avoiding overfilling, using a fabric cover, and never sitting or lying on the bottle.
- Safety advice stresses not using boiling water to fill bottles, with guidance to let boiled water cool before use, particularly for children.
- Ken Dunn of the Children’s Burns Trust warns young children are disproportionately affected and advises families to avoid using hot water bottles for children.
- The British Standards Institution has reinstated its national committee for hot water bottles and microwaveable warmers, and RoSPA has been invited to chair the effort to update safety standards last set in 2012.