Protect your hands when carving pumpkins
As families head to pumpkin patches to pick out the perfect gourd to carve, hand therapists say that spooky fun can turn grisly if pumpkin carving turns into a nightmare on your street.
According to the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, there were more than 2,700 Halloween-related injuries in 2019 and more than 40 percent of the injuries were related to pumpkin carving.
Six tips to keep pumpkins carving fun, not frightful:
Carve pumpkins in a well-lit and dry area – Carving pumpkins outside keeps the mess out of the house, but make sure you set up your carving station in a well-lit area so you can see what you are doing. Also make sure the area, the pumpkin, your hands, and carving tools are dry so there are no unintended slip-ups that could leave you carving more than your pumpkin. The innards of a pumpkin are wet and slimy, so keep drying towels at hand to keep everything clean and dry.
Use a pumpkin carving kit – Leave the big chef knives for the horror movies and use the pumpkin carving kits that are sold in most grocery or convenience stores. The small tools are specially designed for pumpkin carving safety and the serrated pumpkin saws can cut your pumpkin without getting stuck deep in the pumpkin’s skin – or your skin! Large chef knives can cut deep and require force to pull out, and that is when many accidents happen.
Carve away from you – Use the same common sense you would when using any knife, cut and carve away from you, not toward you. It also cuts down on the chance for accidents if you use small strokes, almost like an edging. Don’t try to cut all the way through the pumpkin in one stroke.
