This holiday season, we here at your local AFC Urgent Care wanted to give you some holiday tips to stay healthy and avoid injuries before you deck the halls. Did you know that the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates that there were over 15,000 injuries related to holiday decorations in the 2012 holiday season? Falls make up for the most at 34% of all holiday injuries followed by lacerations and back strains. We wanted to give you some tips to staying safe in the holiday season.

Regarding ladders, our biggest piece of advice is make sure you read all warning labels on the ladder and make sure you are using the correct size for the job at hand. You should never need to strain yourself to reach far for the task at hand.

As for all those indoor decorations, make sure your tree is fresh or flame retardant. Live trees should be green and retain needles. Both fresh and fake trees should both be set away from heat sources such as radiators, fire places, etc. Make sure the lights your trim that tree with are tested and also do not have exposed wires. And for those outside lights, make sure the lights are made for outdoor use. Not all light strings are made the same.

Lastly, avoid burning “fire salts” as well as wrapping paper. “Fire salts” can be dangerous when accidently ingested by children and that pretty wrapping paper can ignite real quickly. Also, candles should also never be left alone, fully extinguished before leaving, and kept out of reach of children.

If an injury should occur, AFC Urgent Care Bound Brook is open seven days a week for walk in urgent care. With little to no wait times and board certified physicians, we can get you back to your holiday fun quickly. Feel free to give us a call at 732-469-3627.

Have a Happy, Healthy, and Safe Holiday Season from your Bound brook AFC Urgent Care Team!