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This Halloween Ghost & ghouls aren’t the only things you should be scared of! We here at AFC Urgent Care North Bergen want you to enjoy the holidays & we know Halloween consists of haunted houses, apple pie, & carving pumpkins! However, did you know that hundreds of people go to the emergency room a year for pumpkin carving incidents? We are offering some tips that will keep you out of harm’s way this Halloween!

Clean your equipment

The easiest way to get hurt is to have a dirty work environment! If you have a dirty work environment you are risking tripping over some things left on the floor. If you trip on the floor carrying a sharp object you can seriously injure yourself. If you have a dirty knife that has rust or some sort of gunk on it, this can disrupt you from cutting cleanly into your pumpkin. If your knife gets stuck cutting into a pumpkin or slips out, this can lead to a wide assortment of cuts.

Don’t sharpen your knife

Contrary to popular believe sharpening your knife for pumpkin carving is actually worse for your safety! For the majority of people carving pumpkins, do not know the metrics of your typical pumpkin. This means there is a high possibility of cutting through the pumpkin & injuring yourself.  The correct thing to do is to make sure your knives aren’t completely dull because that isn’t good either. A regular knife will do the trick!

Just buy a kit

The easiest way to avoid any type of injury is too buy a pumpkin carving kit. The kit comes with tools that are specifically designed to cut into a pumpkin which means you don’t have to use a knife that wasn’t designed for that purpose at all. The kit not only will provide you with more safety but also can provide you with some designs & stencils! We here at AFC North Bergen hope that these tips will help you avoid injury while carving pumpkins this year!
 

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