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Show i Decorate safely during the 1 990 holiday season The holidays are a time of celebration. A time to decorate your home with multicolored lights and glowing candles. All around the world, families spend hours making sure the decorations look just right to give their home a festive air. Children particularly love the holiday holi-day season - with its happy music, sparkling tinsel and brightly-colored brightly-colored paper. r This year, ' give your children something truly special. An early holiday present that will last a lifetime. Give them an injury-free holiday season. Many of the traditional trappings trap-pings including trees, giftwrap and mistletoe pose health threats to children. Each year many children are injured during the holiday holi-day season. Most of these injuries could have been prevented. "The holidays are a happy time to spend with family and friends said Robert F. Parenti, director of the Utah Safety Council. "The last thing you want to worry about is something happening to your child. By taking a few precautions, you can have a safe and happy holiday season. The Utah Safety Council, the National SAFE KIDS Campaign and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission suggest the following safety tips to help make your holiday injury-free. Christmas trees Look for a fresh Christmas tree if you opt to buy a natural tree this holiday. Fresh trees are less likely to catch on fire than older trees. A fresh tree has: a strong scent of pine; branches that easily bend without snapping or breaking; needles that are very green and hard to pull from branches, bend easily between your fingers, and do not easily fall off the tree (try bouncing the tree on firm ground to see if many needles fall off). Set the tree up in a place away from heat sources such as a fireplace or radiator. Trim your tree with your children in mind. Do not put breakable ornaments; ornaments with small, detachable parts; or ornaments or-naments that look like food or candy can-dy on the lower branches where small children can reach them. Dispose of your tree as soon as possible after the holidays. Never burn a Christmas tree, treated wood or wrapping paper in your fireplace. Consider buying a fire-resistant artificial tree instead. Beware of flocked trees. Children think the flock is powdered sugar it is actually poisonous. Lights and Candles Decorate your tree using only UL approved lights and cords. Inspect In-spect the lights for exposed or frayed wires, loose connections or broken sockets. Do not overload extension ex-tension cords with lights. Use no more than three strings of lights on one extension cord. Keep toddlers away from electrical sockets when they are not in use. Turn off the tree lights when you go to bed or leave the house. Keep burning candles out of children's reach. Teach children not to touch burning candles but, instead, in-stead, to admire their beauty from a safe distance. Do not place candles near draperies or anything that might easily catch fire. Poisons Christmas introduces unique chemicals and poisons into the home many of them come in innocent and unexpected forms: Keep poisonous plants out of reach. Some holiday plants that are poisonous include: Amaryllis, Azalea, Boxwood, Castor Bean, Christmas Cactus, Christmas Rose, Crown of Thorns, English and American Ivy, Holly Berries, Jerusalem or Jimson Weed, Christmas Cherry, Mountain Laurel, Poinsettias and Pokeweed. Be sure to remove mistletoe right after the holidays. Berries that may fall from old plants are poisonous. Keep common baking ingredients ingre-dients such as vanilla and almond extract out of reach. They contains high levels of alcohol and can be harmful to young children if swallowed. Oil of Wintergreen a form of aspirin should also be kept out of reach. Beware of fire salts used in fireplaces to produce colored flames. They contain heavy metals and cause intense gastrointestinal irritation or vomiting if eaten. Dispose of colored wrapping paper immediately. It may contain lead and other materials toxic to small children if chewed. Teach your children that decorations are not food. The Utah Safety Council and the Utah SAFE KIDS Coalition wish you a safe and merry Christmas. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Utah Safety Council at 533-5851 or outside out-side the Salt Lake Metro area at 800-933-5943. The Utah Safety Council is a non-profit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to the safety of Utah citizens. I I ' ' 1 1 I I . - V . I I , lit : ' . V " if A-v. Decorating the home for Christmas is fun for the entire family and parents should remember that many of the traditional trappings, trap-pings, including trees, giftwrap and mistletoe pose health threats to children in unsuspected injuries. Most of the injuries are preventable. |