Photo: creative commons - pixabay - alsterkoralle / 83 images
The weather is cooling down and with that comes a raft of winter-related ACC claims - like injuries from hot water bottles.
According to ACC, 856 hot water bottle-related injuries were accepted last year, with 91 percent burns.
ACC injury prevention leader Kirsten Malpas told Nights "quite a few" burns happened to hands and wrists which suggested people were using boiling water from a jug and pouring it into the bottle's narrow neck.
This caused the water to splash, Malpas said, and resulted in $730,000 worth of ACC claims.
The best way to use a "hotty" was to fill it with hot water from the tap and cover it with a warmer, Malpas said.
But hot water bottles were not the only winter-related ACC claims made.
People also made claims relating to wheat packs, electric blankets, slips and snow sport injuries.
In 2022, 62 people were injured while using a wheat pack and 119 people made claims related to electric blankets at a cost of $240,000.
In the past five years, 110,000 people had made claims from slips, including on ice and pathways.
About 17,000 snow sport injury claims were made each year, costing about $30 million.
Photo: 123RF
Injuries varied - but many were either knee injuries or shoulder injuries.
An usual claim - which was made about 3000 times a year - were wind-related injuries.
This cost about $6.3m, Malpas said.
But the most injuries were made at home, Malpas said, where people spent most of winter "hunkering down".
"People often think their home is one of the safest place to be in but it's actually where the most injuries happen."
Malpas said ACC covered about two million claims every year - and 97 percent of all claims were accepted.
"If you've had an injury, there's a very good chance you will be accepted and it will be a quick process," she said.
