Did you know that your home could be one of the most dangerous places to be in? If the statistics from the National Institute of Health(NIH) is something to go by, the United States reports more than 30,000 people deaths from home injuries every year. For reasons as simple as those regular slip and fall at home and poisonings, the trend has been on a constant rise since 2000.
Although fire, and the burns that home fires cause, would seem to be the most obvious dangers, household fire is rapidly diminishing as a source for healthcare problems – mostly due to the forceful regulations on fireproofing home furnishings and building materials over the last 50 years.
The most effective advice for preventing home injuries is to simply be careful and use common sense. A big part of home safety is trying to plan ahead and anticipate where home accidents might happen. Here are some tips to help prevent some of the most common causes of home injuries.
Tip #1: Know What You Own
How many times have you bought some common household cleaning or DIY product and carefully read the prominent warning text printed on that product’s label? Probably, like, never? We might read a little of the directions for use, but seldom the larger, capitalized type that usually reads: WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS PARACHLOROBENZOTRIFLOURIDE etc. etc.
We don’t know what Parachloro-whatever is, and could care less, as long as this stuff cleans the scum off the bathroom tiles, right? But the ingredients in many of these household products are powerful poisons that could severely injure or even kill a person, if ingested. And many of these compounds are so molecularly tiny (to make them more effective at removing entities with larger molecules) that they can be absorbed – right through your skin!
Also, all of these labels contain the phrase: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN, in a font size larger than other typeface on the rear label but do we keep these products locked up in a secure closet, absolutely inaccessible to children? For the answer to that question, just look under any kitchen sink in America.
The bottomline here is, we all have to redouble our efforts at securing dangerous, poisonous household products, and should invest in a box of disposable latex gloves for wearing when we are using them.
Tip #2: Safeguard Your Floor Surfaces
The new look in home flooring is hard and shiny. Since the introduction of bamboo-based, laminate flooring, the carpets have come up, and the laminates have gone down on floors across America.
It is no wonder that injuries from slipping and falling have risen at the same time as this new trend. Some of the main culprits for causing falls are the small throw rugs that dot these new shiny floors. Unless these rugs have rubber, non-slip pads beneath them, they are accidents waiting to happen.
Another source of injuries is the trend for many homeowners to require guests to remove their shoes while inside their home. That is all well and good, except a visitor is unfamiliar with the various floor surfaces in that home. They are walking around in their socks and could easily slip on an unexpected, very smooth floor surface. There are socks with rubberized bottoms that you should provide to visitors if you want them to remove their shoes in your home.
Tip #3: Check Your Garage
Garages often eschew their role as car storage and become extended attics and catch-alls for everything you’d probably throw away if you didn’t have this convenient place to stow it, and forget about it. Consequently, the garage is the number one place where unattended home fires start.
There used to be a concept of spring-cleaning, where the family would get together once the weather got warmer and clear out the old stuff, sweep behind the couches and beds, etc. Not a bad idea to include the old garage in that activity once a year and to get rid of some of the fire starters.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
