Background: Burn injuries are significant cause of mortality, morbidity and disability around the world. Occupational burns account for 10-45 percent of all burn injuries which cause burden of disease to the community. The incidence of occupational burns in Iran is higher than in developed countries. This study aimed to evaluate the epidemiology of occupational burns and its effect on patients referred to Motahari Hospital in Tehran during 2000-02.

Methods: A cross sectional study was designed to evaluate the epidemiology of occupational burns and its effect on patients referred to Motahari Hospital in Tehran during 2000-02. Patients with work-related burns were included. Data were analyzed with confidence interval of 95%.

Results: A total of 522 patients (male: 515, female: 6) were enrolled in the study with the mean age of 31.38 years (14-80 years). Most of the patients were workers (78%) and the most reason of referring was electric burn (46%). Also 41(7.9%) of the patients died because of burn injury. The most frequent type of burn was third degree (47.99%), second degree (39.1%), forth degree (8.8%) and the least type was first degree (0.2%).

Conclusion: Electrical burn was the most common reason of occupational burn as mentioned in previous reports. It is suggested that supervisors teach the safety issues to the workers eir.