5 Safety Tips for a Fun and Safe Fourth of July Weekend

July Fourth weekend brings up visions of backyard barbecues, dips in the pool or the lake, and fun with fireworks. Here are five things you can do to make this a fun weekend, not one that gets spent in a local emergency room.

Fireworks kill

Fireworks "have the potential to cause great injury," said Kristen Hullum, the trauma injury prevention coordinator at St. David's Round Rock Medical Center. Fingers can be lost after holding on too long or at the wrong end. Face injuries happen when someone stands over one after lighting it. Body injuries can happen if a firework travels sideways instead of going up and explodes into people.

• The safest fireworks are the professional displays you watch.
• If you are going to light fireworks, make sure what you are lighting is legal where you live. (Hint: most fireworks are not legal inside city limits.) This year, the area is not under a burn ban.
• Keep everyone at least 15 feet away from the lighting area.
• Light fireworks only on cement or asphalt and away from homes and cars.
• Keep a hose or bucket of water nearby.
• Don't drink alcohol and light fireworks.
• Don't try to re-light a dud.
• Handle sparklers by the non-burning end, then drop them into a bucket of water when you are done. Sparklers cause 75% of the fireworks injury in the U.S. People don't realize that they burn at 2,000 degrees, hotter than a blowtorch.

Don't get grilled

• Don’t stand over the grill when lighting it. Use a long match or long lighter, keep hair pulled back and avoid loose-fitting shirts.
• Only used approved fire starters. Most people who come to the emergency room with barbecue burns have tried to augment the fire by throwing something such as gasoline on the coals. It flares up and shirts catch fire, burning arms or chests.
• Practice good food safety habits: Everything needs to be cooked to the proper temperature: 145 degrees for most meat and fish; 165 for poultry.
• Wash vegetables and fruit thoroughly. Use separate knives and cutting boards for meats and non-meats.
• Do not keep food out all day. Within two hours of serving, food should be packed up and refrigerated.
• Eat leftovers within three or four days or freeze them.

Be water safe

• Assign a water watcher to have eyes on the kids at all times before heading to the pool, lake or beach. That doesn't mean reading a book or scrolling through the phone, but active supervision. A lifeguard is not your water watcher.
• If you are visiting a hotel or friends or family who have a pool, make sure that pool has a locked gate and fence around it and that there is nothing near the fence that a kid could climb over to get to the pool.
• Empty sources of water like kiddie pools, buckets and coolers after you use them.
• Use life jackets. If you are going to a natural body of water, have everyone wear a properly fitting U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jacket when swimming or boating. For children, life jackets are based on weight; for adults, it's about the chest circumference. Those kids swimsuits with floatation devices do not count as a life jacket. Children 13 and younger have to by law have life jackets on while boating, but it's a good idea for everyone to have them. In 80% of boat-related drownings, the person was not wearing a life jacket, Hullum said. A life jacket is designed to bring you to the surface and keep your head above water even if you have hit your head and are unconscious.
• Don't drink and boat.

Avoid heat illness

It's going to be hot this weekend, with the National Weather Service predicting a high of 98 degrees Friday, 100 on Saturday and 101 on Sunday.

• Stay ahead of hydration by preemptively drink a lot of water if you expect to be outside the next day.
• Use wet cloths or cooling vests as well as staying in the shade to stay cool outside or stay indoors during the heat of the day.
• Know that alcohol and caffeine dehydrate you. For every alcoholic drink, you should drink a glass of water.
• Know your limits. Young children, older people and people taking some medications can become overheated very quickly.
• Seek medical attention if a person stops sweating, faints or loses consciousness, has a fast heartbeat, acts confused, gets dizzy or nauseated. These are signs of heat stroke.

Protect yourself from the sun

• Use a thick layer of sunscreen, at least 1 ounce or the equivalent of a shot glass full. Choose a sunscreen that is SPF 30 or higher; the higher the SPF the better. Lotions or creams work better than gels and sprays, and look for sunscreens with zinc or titanium dioxide for the best protection. Don't forget the less obvious areas that have a high risk for skin cancer: lips, ears, the back of the neck, the back, backs of arms, backs of legs, feet and palms.
• Reapply sunscreen all over at least every two hours that you are outside.
• Wear sun protective clothing that has Ultraviolet Protection Factor, or UPF, and don't forget the wide-brim hat.
• Avoid being outside between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., when the UV index is highest, or seek shade.