Health Dept. provides July 4 safety tips

Ohio Dept. of Health information

COLUMBUS — As Ohioans make plans to celebrate the July Fourth holiday weekend, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) offers several tips for ensuring a healthy, safe celebration by taking a few precautions regarding fireworks, food-borne and water-borne illnesses, mosquitoes and measles.

“If you’re planning to go to a fireworks display, a cookout, a swimming party, camping or traveling, there are some simple precautions you can take to help keep your family healthy and safe,” said ODH State Epidemiologist Dr. Mary DiOrio.

Those include the following:

• Ohio law permits the use of sparklers and other types of novelties. Sparklers can burn at more than 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and should be used with caution.
• Cook food to the right temperature.
• Refrigerate uneaten food promptly.
• Wash and rinse fruits and vegetables unless they can be peeled.
• Drink beverages that are bottled and have a seal that is unbroken.
• Wash hands often with soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Bugs (including mosquitoes, ticks and some flies) can spread a number of diseases. Use insect repellent.
• Shower with soap before and after swimming.

Ohio’s continuing measles outbreak is the largest in the U.S. since 1994. Parents with infants too young to be vaccinated with the mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccine should consider not traveling with them to areas where measles outbreaks are occurring. Contracting measles is especially serious for infants younger than 1 year old.