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Show Causes of Canning Accidents Reviewed ' Pressure cookers' contributed about 15 . per cent of the . accidents acci-dents reported last year in connection con-nection with canning, reports Miss Elna Miller, nutritionist of the Utah Extension Service, in telling Utah homemakers proper canning methods. The cookers are as safe as any other piece of equipment in me house, provided they are used corrctly, states Miss Millir, adding ad-ding that "accidents have happened hap-pened because people have failed to follow the instructions which are given to make the use of the cooker absolutely safe." She says that if authentic instructions in-structions are used there need be no accidents from the use of the cooker, nor from spoilage of food products and poisning resulting re-sulting frm products which are processed in the pressure cooker. An important cause of last year's accidents was the improper use of the petcock in releasing steam after the processing was finished, and this often resulted' in explosion of jars. Frequently the petcfock was not opened to allow steam to escape before removing re-moving the lid. Miss Miller cites the case of a woman whto had her . face . badly cut and burned when the lids of the jars were .blown into her face, and another woman opened . '. the petcock immediately after the processing time was finished without with-out letting the pressure drop, to zero. All the- jars exploded in- : side the cooked and all the food was wasted. Another woman used a cooker which had never had the safety valve removed for cleaning, clean-ing, and it was so "gummed up" ' that it could not release, and the pressure inside became so great it blew a hole in the side of the cooker. She warns that people have been scalded from lifting the lid off' so that the steam came up 1 into their faces instead otf away I from them. Accidents have hap-j hap-j pened when cookers have been j left over high heat while their operators visitd with neighbors or 1 worked in the yard and left the cookers unwatched. Water bath accidents were usually us-ually caused from jars being packed too tightly leaving no head space in the top of the jar, she declares, and explosion or breakages of jars usually occurred occur-red while the jars were being removed from the water bath. |