Burn injuries related to motorcycle exhaust pipes: a study in Greece $ Ioannis Matzavakis a , Constantine E. Frangakis a,b , Ava Charalampopoulou a , Eleni Petridou a, * a Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Athens University Medical School, 75 Mikras Asias Street, 11527 Athens, Greece b Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA Accepted 10 November 2004 Abstract Purpose: To identify measures that should reduce the incidence of burn injuries resulting from motorcycle exhaust pipes through epidemiological analysis of such injuries. Basic procedures: During a 5-year period, 251 persons who suffered burn injuries related to motorcycle exhaust pipes have contacted four major hospitals belonging to the Emergency Department Injury Surveillance System (EDISS) operating since 1996 in Greece. These burn injuries were studied in relation to person, environment and vehicle characteristics. Main findings: The estimated countrywide incidence of burns from motorcycle exhaust pipes was 17 per 100,000 person-years (208 per 100,000 motorcycle-years). The incidence was two times higher for children than for older persons and among the latter it was 60% higher among females than among males. Most of burn injuries (70.5%) concerned motorcycle passengers, mainly when getting on or off motorcycle, with peak incidence during summer. The most frequent location of burn wounds was below the knee and particularly the right leg. It was estimated that the risk of motorcycle exhaust pipe burns when wearing shorts could be reduced by 46% through wearing long pants. Among the victims 65.3% experienced second degree burns. Principal conclusions: Motorcycle exhaust burns could be substantially reduced by systematically wearing long pants, by incorporating in the design of motorcycles external thermo resistant shields with adequate distance to the exhaust pipe, and by avoiding riding with children on motorcycles. # 2004 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved. Keywords: Burn; Injury; Motorcycle; Exhaust pipe 1. Introduction In economically developed countries, motor-vehicle injuries constitute a dominant cause of mortality and serious morbidity that could lead to long-term sequel [1]. In the literature, there are some well-documented studies focusing on burn injuries due to motor-vehicle accidents, which represent a non-negligible fraction of the total number of traffic injuries [2–4]. On the contrary, there are scant data regarding the epidemiology of burn injuries related to motorcycle exhaust pipes [2,5,6]. Moreover, the specific studies on motorcycle exhaust burn injuries involved relatively small sample size of cases [2,5,6]. Description of patterns and documentation of factors relevant to motorcycle contact burn injuries are likely to facilitate the design and implementation of preventive strategies. According to the National Statistical Service of Greece, for the year 2001, the population and the total number of motorcycles in Greece were 10,939,771 and 853,366 respectively. We have undertaken a retrospective case study in Greece aiming at describing the profile of burn injuries resulting from motorcycle exhaust pipes as well as at identifying factors that are preferentially involved in these injuries. 2. Materials and methods The pattern of burn injuries due to motorcycle exhaust pipes in Greece was studied using data retrieved from the www.elsevier.com/locate/burns Burns 31 (2005) 372–374 $ All authors of this research study state that there are no conflicts of interest. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 2107462187; fax: +30 2107462105. E-mail address: epetrid@med.uoa.gr (E. Petridou). 0305-4179/$30.00 # 2004 Elsevier Ltd and ISBI. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.burns.2004.11.011