My youngsters love picnics. There’s one thing thrilling about being within the recent air and having fun with a meal within the nice open air. The regular meals my household eats day by day appear way more scrumptious when eaten on a blanket within the park.
As a pharmacist and poison specialist within the Drug and Poison Information Center, I often see an uptick in calls this time of yr associated to picnics. The most typical are food-related sicknesses and sunscreen or bug spray poisonings.
As households are making preparations for this weekend and all through the summer time, listed here are a number of tricks to stop among the extra widespread picnic-related poisonings:
Preparing meals
Cross contamination of uncooked meat is among the most typical food-related sicknesses we hear about this time of yr. Keep your loved ones protected by following these security ideas:
- Wash arms earlier than and after making ready the meal, particularly with uncooked meat.
- Keep meat that’s marinating within the fridge, not on the counter.
- Wash reducing boards and knives with scorching, soapy water after every use.
- When grilling, use totally different dishes for uncooked meat and cooked meat.
- Cook meat to the really useful temperatures to kill micro organism: beef 160°F, poultry 180°F, pork 160°F.
- Cook eggs and shellfish utterly.
Packing meals
Before you head out the door for a picnic, listed here are some ideas to ensure your meals stays suitable for eating:
- Pack meals as your final step earlier than you permit.
- Pack refrigerated meals in well-insulated coolers that enable house for ice packs.
- Put scorching meals in an insulated container so it stays scorching.
- If you’re not consuming straight away, put your cooler within the shade and canopy with a blanket, moderately than leaving it within the automobile.
- Refrigerate any remaining meals inside two hours.
Sunscreen
Older sunscreens used para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA), however newer sunscreens comprise a wide range of elements reminiscent of cinnamates, salicylates (aspirin-like compounds), zinc oxide and others. Sunscreens are usually thought-about considerably protected if a small amount is eaten, however could cause allergic reactions or pores and skin/eye irritation. Use warning when making use of sunscreen to keep away from getting it within the eyes or within the mouth, particularly with younger kids.
Insect repellents
Bugs are the uninvited company of picnics, and DEET (N-diethyl-m-toluamide), is the simplest ingredient to do away with them. However, there are some precautions to remember when utilizing an insect repellent containing DEET:
- Be certain to spray it away from the face.
- Use warning when spraying it in your kids. It needs to be averted in infants and might trigger seizures in kids when used for lengthy durations of time. Use solely the bottom concentrations on kids (lower than 30%), and don’t apply repeatedly.
- Use bug repellents outdoors to keep away from inhaling them.
- Use simply sufficient to cowl the uncovered pores and skin — making use of extra doesn’t make them simpler.
- If DEET is ingested, it could actually trigger reasonable to extreme abdomen irritation, nausea, vomiting, and in essentially the most extreme instances, neurological injury together with seizures and coma.
Now that summer time has arrived in Cincinnati, one in every of our favourite household actions is to pack a picnic and take our bikes out to the park. Sunscreen, bug spray and correctly packed lunches guarantee now we have a protected picnic and pleased summer time reminiscences.
As at all times, in case you have any questions please name the consultants at your Cincinnati Drug and Poison Information Center at (800) 222-1222. We can be found to assist 24/7.