horizons.eraunews.com Horizons Online Edition Wednesday, December 3, 2008 Home > Diversions Halloween Pumpkin-Carving Safety Tips

Every year, presumably hundreds of thousands of American citizens either seriously injure or kill themselves while carving pumpkins for Halloween. Hopefully, these carving safety tips can prevent you or your family from suffering a horrible injury.

Perhaps most important to maintaining all of your limbs is to select the appropriate pumpkin. Selecting a pumpkin that is too large can cause serious hand, arm, or back injuries, and in a worst-case scenario, can cause death by crushing. Be sure to choose a medium-sized pumpkin with a nice shape and a smooth face. If you select an extremely giant pumpkin and fear bodily injury, be sure to request assistance.

Here's an interesting idea: try carving the bottom of the pumpkin out to maintain that healthy pumpkin shape. When the top is replaced after gut-removal, it generally sags due to a mix between candle heat and smoke, so removing the bottom avoids those problems. Just make sure to poke a vent hole in the top of the pumpkin if you use a candle so the flame can breathe.

Rather than poking an abundance of holes in the pumpkin and exposing yourself to unnecessary risk, try outlining the desired design onto the pumpkin with a marker. This leaves room for error, and allows you to lay out the jack-o'-lantern before you begin to cut.

When you do begin to carve, remember that a sharper knife is not necessarily better. Sharp kitchen utensils often get lodged in the thicker part of the pumpkin, and an injury can occur if your hand is in the wrong place when you forcefully dislodge the blade.

Also remember to always cut away from yourself. Knife strokes toward you are more likely to end in self-dismemberment. Cutting through thick pumpkin skin can cause hand and wrist strains, so beware.

Another possibility is to use pumpkin-carving kits, which are sold in many stores. The small, serrated saws are designed to be effective pumpkin cutters, and thus are less likely to become wedged in the pumpkin's exterior than household cutting knives are.

A final safety tip is to refrain from eating the pumpkin whole. The pumpkin-related death toll unsurprisingly depends heavily on people's tendency to attempt to swallow an entire pumpkin. This unhealthy habit is frowned upon by health officials and school administrators alike. If you do feel the need to eat an entire pumpkin, first try to eat one in pie form. If that method fails, at least try cutting the pumpkin into wedges before consuming it.