What are the common pitfalls associated with passing variables between PHP classes and HTML constructs, and how can they be mitigated effectively?

One common pitfall is exposing sensitive data by passing variables directly from PHP classes to HTML constructs without proper sanitization. This can lead to security vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting attacks. To mitigate this effectively, always sanitize and validate user input before passing it to HTML constructs.

<?php
// Sanitize and validate user input before passing it to HTML constructs
$userInput = $_POST['user_input'];
$sanitizedInput = htmlspecialchars($userInput);
echo "<p>$sanitizedInput</p>";
?>