A campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of hair straighteners to children is being launched in Glasgow.

Straight Off, Straight Away urges parents to turn the devices off immediately after use.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will launch a series of posters on Wednesday.

Hair straighteners can reach up to 230C, nearly six times the temperature of a household hot water supply and hotter than a domestic iron. These can have devastating effects on children's skin.

The posters will be placed in GP surgeries, pharmacies, hospitals, early years centres and other key places around the health board area.

Health visitors and teams working with families in the area are also being briefed to discuss these safety messages when carrying out their visits with families of young children.

Elizabeth Lumsden, community safety manager for RoSPA Scotland, said: "By being more vigilant parents can drastically reduce the risk of their children being injured in the home.

"Although anyone who uses straighteners may be aware of how hot they are, many do not realise that they stay hot for a long time after being switched off or may leave them unattended for a few seconds while they go to do something else - which is all the time it takes for an accident to happen.

"So we are reminding people to switch them straight off and put them straight away."

Lesley Nish, senior health improvement officer at the health board said: "Each year in Greater Glasgow and Clyde we treat a number of children at our burns unit who have injured themselves with hair straighteners.

"While using hair straighteners at home parents can help to protect children from these horrific burns by using a heat resistant bag if they have one at home, or if they don't have one, they can purchase a heat resistant bag to use with their straighteners either from shops or online."

Sharon Ramsay, burns nurse specialist at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, said: "It's mostly toddlers we see here and the most common burns are to their hands and feet where they have either tried to pick them up or stand on them.

"This type of injury is very painful for the children and they are often quite distressed when they arrive.

"Parents too can be very upset seeing their children in pain and there's the obvious guilt they feel if they have left straighteners lying about.

"Children also have much thinner skin than adults. This means while some burns heal, others can leave unsightly scars. Occasionally some may need to have plastic surgery to repair the skin."