Every year there are plenty of accidents that happen in and around the home. You wouldn’t think of your house as a place where accidents are waiting to happen, but it’s true. Here is a list of hazards around the home you should be aware of.
Falling is the leading cause of death in and around the house. They make up a third of all fatalities. It’s mostly elderly people who belong to this statistic. When a younger person falls, they will break bones and get some bruises. When an older person falls, those same injuries could be more life-threatening.
Try to avoid fall damage by making sure there are plenty of things to hold onto when going down the stairs, such as handrails. Also, ensure grip on the stairs itself for feet. Take care with extra steep stairs, they will need extra attention. Stairlifts can be a good solution for the elderly or people with mobility issues.
Another place where people tend to fall in the bathroom. Especially when it’s slippy, and people try to maneuver themselves around, there is a risk that people will lose their balance. These kinds of falls are especially dangerous as you can hit your head on a sink or bathtub. Make sure there is plenty of grip on the floor, preferably ones that won’t get slippy when wet.
When it comes to younger children, it’s not so much falling that is dangerous, it is poisoning. Every home will have loads of chemicals such as bleach, paint, various cleaning products, and pesticides. It’s essential to have child-safe locks on places where you store chemicals or to make sure you store them in high places, out of reach of small hands.
Make sure you keep small magnets and batteries out of reach of children as well. You will be surprised how resourceful children are at dissembling toys to get to parts they shouldn’t. Be extra vigilant if children are playing with toys that contain magnets and batteries. Keep an emergency contact number on speed dial, so that if anything happens, you won’t have to spend time looking for it.
Another dangerous element is carbon monoxide. When carbon monoxide slowly builds up, it is extremely dangerous as it sends unsuspecting victims to sleep, slowly killing them by preventing enough oxygen reaching the brain.
Having a carbon monoxide alarm in your home is a good starting point but there are so many things to consider when trying to reduce the potential of a carbon monoxide outbreak. These include regular servicing of appliances, maintaining any chimney or stove flues and fitting an extractor fan in your kitchen.
Some symptoms to look out for in relation to carbon monoxide poisoning include:
- feeling and being sick
- tiredness and confusion
- stomach pain
- shortness of breath and difficulty breathing
You can learn more about carbon monoxide and its dangerous by visiting nhs.uk/conditions/carbon-monoxide-poisoning/.
Speaking of fire, one of the ways previously thought to minimise this risk in years gone by was by using asbestos in homes. It wasn’t till the late 1980s when asbestos stopped being used in construction. This change was caused by overwhelming evidence that asbestos is linked to certain forms of cancer.
It wasn’t uncommon for companies to make the assessment that removing asbestos wholesale was more expensive than dealing with related issues as they would come up. Therefore, some older homes sometimes still have asbestos in their homes. If this is the case for your home, you should consider getting residential asbestos removal and get an inspection immediately. This is something we had to get done with our own home during the renovation phase.
One hazard you wouldn’t usually think of in a home is drowning but this can be the case for young children so you need to take extra care with things like bathing and general use of water around kids.
Some 50% of all drowning incidents involve children, while 1/3 of these take place in and around the home, so this is something that all parents should be aware off.
Last on our list is choking, a hazard that is near impossible to prevent particularly with young children. Children have a habit of putting small objects in their mouth. This can be a little toy, a coin or any other random purpose they found on the floor. The only way to deal with this is vigilance. However, it can happen in the blink of an eye.
The main thing is to be able to spot choking instantly and to know how to get a small object out of a child’s mouth. The key is not to force the object further down. If the situation is critical, knowing the Heimlich maneuver will be your last resort.
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Until next time, stay safe and thanks for reading.
Helen, Nial and Lewis