Health and Safety Game in the Killer Kitchen - Images not for the faint hearted
Stranger Kitchen Danger
Everybody knows that the home is the most dangerous place and statistics show that most of these occur in the kitchen. This is no accident, (forgive the pun). You might think it's just because kitchens are the most used room of the house, or that there are many dangers such as boiling liquids or draws not properly closed. This may be a fact, but it's only part of the story. The real truth is that, like all inanimate objects, kitchen gadgets really are out to get you.
Kitchen machines are mean machines.
They mean business. It has been proved that it's as easy to Train an Elephant in One Easy Step as it is to tame those deviant kitchen appliances. Buy a pressure steamer or a deep fryer? Way too scary! These are the heavies when it come to kitchen killers ready to blow you up or incinerate bits of you, but even the more innocuous looking toaster can deal out sudden death or grievous bodily harm faster than you can say 'Jack Robinson'. Lets look at just a few of those lethal lovelies:
Take health and safety in the kitchen very seriously
Is health and safety too serious for humour?
Invest in safety devices for the kitchen
Appliance of Science (fiction)
Savage steamers
Steamers are top of my list because they look and sound dangerous. They are designed to build up pressure of steam to dangerous and explosive levels. They hiss and spit as they jet out steam waiting for you to lower your face just close enough and then ... Steamer tactics: The steamer will burn if touched, direct steam at hands, faces and any other part of the body and, if provoked, explode.
Toaster tortures
Toasters, despite their diminutive size, are in the Sudden Death league along with fridges and washing machines . Study the video below to see just how lethal they can be with their wide range of attack from burnt fingers to death by electric shock.
Devilish deep fryers
Chip fryers are the big baddies of the kitchen. They are filthy animals, wallowing in their own dirt and spitting foul fat all over the tiles and surfaces. There they sit, lurking, waiting for their friend the gas ring to get into action and then the race is on - can they generate enough heat for spontaneous combustion before you notice what they're up to? Never take your eyes of this menacing little monster.
Flaming frying pans
Frying pans are the little brothers to the more intimidating deep fryers. They may seem innocuous but turn your back on them and you have flames sky-high.
Killer kettles
Kettles are sneaks when it comes to dealing out the danger. You think of the kettle as your friendly chum, always ready with a nice cup of tea, but watch out that the little blighter doesn't just give your hand a nasty scald with a well-aimed steam of jet.
Bleeding blenders
Soup blenders are the greatest temptresses. They whip up all the stalks and fibers in the soup and wrap them around their super-sharp blades just willing you to pop a finger in to dislodge the mess and then - wham - they fly into action and whip off a finger tip or two.
Fearsome freezers and Frightening fridges
Your refrigerator sits quietly humming in the corner of the kitchen, the freezer coughs and shudders from time to time, but both are like basking crocodiles just waiting for some small child to climb into their 'gently smiling jaws' during a game of Hide and Seek and then - slowly, silently they go into action, drawing the body heat slowly but surely until all you're left with is a lifeless corpse. Chilling!
Mean washing machines
Washing machines apply much the same tactics as the fridges and freezers, but once inside the child will suffocate or worse still, an unsuspecting parent will wash the child to death.
Crazy cookers
Cookers like to nip your arms and hands as you get things in and out of the oven. That is why a cooks' arms will have burn marks from finger to elbow. You can buy battle gauntlets to minimize this but it is just a matter of time before the cooker gets through your defenses. It is also quite happy to gas you given any opportunity; so easy to think that you have lit the ring when really the cooker has withdrawn gas at the very last moment. Alternatively, it will wait for a nice sunny day and put out a great flame that the sunshine renders invisible. Outcome? Badly burnt hand.
FACT:
2009-2013, cooking was top cause of home fires and No. 3 cause of home fire deaths.
Estimated average of 162,400 cooking fires in US every year. Read more
Gruesome graters
Cheese graters may seem small and insignificant compared to many other kitchen devices, and yet they are simply lying quietly just waiting for the opportunity to draw blood. Unlike the machines, a grater is clever enough to make you the author of your own downfall. How many knuckles are grated along with the stub of the carrot? How often do you grate your thumb along with the cheese?
Cunning cheese slicers
Last, but not least, the cunning Lesser Cheese Slicer. This, like it's rougher cousin, the grater, is happy to let you have control, but one false move while slicing cheese Into decorative shapes and you'll shave off an elegantly fine sliver of skin.
Kitchen safety
Take care in the kitchen
I hope that these cautionary tales will enable you to outwit the kitchen killers and avoid assault at their hands (so to speak). See the links below for some precautions you can take to keep you safe in the Killer Kitchen.
Finally, I would just like to thank Stan Fletcher, who is My Favorite Hubber, for drawing these daily dangers to my attention. Thanks Stan.
Only one question remains: Was the Lone Ranger Gay?
Please note that this Hub is written by my alter ego DaisyChain in order safeguard the reputation of the more po-faced author, Les Trois Chenes.
Harry Hill demonstrates what happens when you don't follow proper kitchen health and safety guidelines
Other interesting links
- Safety in the kitchen area. Things to do to prevent accidents in the kitchen.
Things you can do to prevent accidents in the kitchen and elsewhere and make your home safer - Safety in the Kitchen
More kitchen gore from the Annoying Orange
© 2010 DaisyChain