Uh-oh.

Home hazards that can make you die of embarrassment. Or simply die.

A woman runs the dishwasher in the morning, part of a routine she has down pat. Just as the dishwasher makes its last wheeze of the drying cycle, she puts down her broom, bends to open the dishwasher door and begins putting away the silverware.

The phone rings.

She turns to answer, trips over the broom, loses her balance and falls right on top of the still open dishwasher loaded with knives facing up.

She stabs herself.

This situation may seem highly unlikely – unless you’ve been watching this season’s Lost, of course – but it is based on a true story. The woman survived and learned an important life lesson.

While the best way to clean knives in the dishwasher may be to have the blades facing up, it’s not the safest way. Wash knives by hand or place the blades facedown in the dishwasher.

“You use an acute injury as a chance to educate patients as to why this is a bad idea,” says James McCarthy,MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and director of the emergency center at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. “People can live the way they want to, but they need to be aware of the risks. I think that’s true of everything related to injury prevention.”

Because most accidents happen at home, McCarthy and Robert “Safety Bob” Emery, DrPH, vice president for safety, health, environment and risk management at the UT Health Science Center at Houston, put their expertise together to discuss home-related hazards and ways to avoid them.

Problem:
It’s Monday, 6 a.m. A man groggily gets out of bed, slugs to the bathroom and turns on the shower. He gets in and after washing up, it’s time to shave. He grabs the razor, but it slips from his hand. He bends down and squints through the steam to see where it’s landed. He slips and slices open the bottom of his foot on the razorblade.

Solution:
Falls can happen to anyone, and many falls result in trips to the emergency room. In fact, McCarthy says falls are one of the most common accidents he sees in the ER.

He offers these safety tips to prevent slips and falls in bathrooms from wet tiles and bathtubs:

• Install anti-slip mats on the bottom of the bathtub.
• Install a good handrail inside the tub/shower and by the toilet.
• Make sure there are no loose rugs in the bathroom that could slip and slide.
• Keep a nightlight in the bathroom.

Emery recommends these guidelines from the National Safety Council to further fall-proof your home:

• Keep stairs and floors free of clutter – no children’s toys, clothes, magazines, etc. — and safely tuck telephone and electrical cords out of walkways.
• Keep floors clean. Clean up grease, water and other liquids immediately. Don’t wax floors.
• Use non-skid throw rugs to reduce your chance of slipping on linoleum.
• Use area rug pads designed to give traction to carpets against wood or tile floors.
• Install handrails in stairways.
• Make sure living areas and stairways are well lit. We can all trip and fall in the dark.
• Be aware that climbing and reaching high places will increase your chance of a fall. Use a sturdy step stool with handrails when these tasks are necessary.
• Follow medication dosages closely. Using medication incorrectly may lead to dizziness, weakness and other side effects. These can all lead to a dangerous fall.
• Never use a tall ladder alone. And never stand at the top of a ladder.

Problem:
Mom, Dad and Junior arrive for Sunday dinner at Grandma’s house. Junior, finished with his meal and getting fussy, is let out of his high chair and toddles off to play. Mom and Dad exchange relieved smiles—finally a little quiet time. But, quiet time lasts a bit too long. Mom knows Junior’s gotten into something, calls him over and sees the grimace on his face. “What did you put in your mouth?” Mom demands. She sees that a kitchen cabinet door is wide open and a bottle of spray bleach is lying on the floor.

Solution:
You can’t very well demand that Grandma baby-proof her house, but you can (and should) ask that chemicals, poisons and other toxins be inaccessible to little hands. That goes for every house you visit.

Emery offers these childproofing mechanisms to prevent accidental poisonings to children:

• Lock up household cleaning products. The top two categories of childhood poisonings include household products and cosmetics.
• Ask friends and family members that you regularly visit to store their medications in high cabinets, out of reach of children. (They may roll their eyes, but they’ll probably comply.)
• Ladies, make sure that items in your purse are inaccessible to curious children.
• Post the telephone number of the local poison control center in an accessible place.
• When visiting friends, remember that their homes may not be child-proofed.

Children can be exposed to other household hazards besides poisoning, so Emery recommends these safety guidelines to prevent injuries to children:

Choking Hazards

• Think large when selecting toys for children younger than 3 years. Make sure all toys and toy parts are larger than your child’s mouth to prevent choking.
• Keep deflated or popped balloons away from children. A young child can choke or suffocate on deflated or broken balloons.

Toy Hazards

• Throw away all toy packaging right away, so it doesn’t become a choking or suffocation hazard.
• Make sure no part of a toy can break off and be swallowed by a child.
• Keep batteries away from children. They are toxic if swallowed. Batteries also are a choking hazard for small children.
• Remember that any ball with a diameter up to one and three-quarters of an inch can easily cause choking in a child.
• Avoid buying toys that shoot small objects into the air. They often result in eye injuries. These arrows, darts or pellets also are a choking hazard for young children. Each year, about 25,000 children are treated for injuries caused by BB guns and pellet guns.
• Avoid items that could cause poisoning. Buy crayons, markers and paint sets that are labeled nontoxic.
• A toy chest without a lid is the safest choice for toy storage. A toy chest can hurt a child’s fingers or hands if the lid closes suddenly. If a toy chest has a lid, it should have safe hinges to stay open in any position. A small child can suffocate if trapped inside a closed toy chest. The chest also should have ventilation holes to prevent suffocation if a child becomes trapped inside.

Electrical Hazards

• Place electrical outlet covers on all outlets to reduce the risk of electrocution for children.
• Do not overload electrical outlets with too many lights or appliances.
• Never place electrical cords under carpets or behind drapes.
• Throw away any electrical wires that are cracked, frayed or bare.
• Move electric curling irons and hair dryers far away from any sink or bathtub, which might have water in it.
• Turn off all lights, space heaters and electrical appliances before you go to sleep or leave the house.

Other Hazards for Children

• Strings or cords are involved in numerous accidental strangulation deaths of infants and children. Cords from blinds, crib mobiles, hood cords and pacifiers can accidentally strangle a child.
• When visiting friends who have a dog, do not leave your child alone with the dog.
• When cooking at home, keep children away from the stove. Use the back burners if possible. Turn the handles of pots and pans inward, so children cannot reach them.

Many cultures around the world believe in the family bed, and the practice of co-sleeping is growing commonplace among American parents, too. McCarthy says that no matter your culture or your beliefs, when parents share the same bed as their baby, they are putting their child’s life at risk.

McCarthy says, “More infants die (from suffocation) from being in bed with their parents than die from drowning in swimming pools. The risk of an infant sleeping with an adult is significant. Infant suffocation happens far more often than people think.”

Problem:
Two brothers are building a skateboard ramp by layering plywood on an upright frame of 2×4 wood boards. The younger brother steadies the boards, while the older works on the other side with the nail gun. He fires the nail gun. The nail goes through the top piece of plywood but misses the 2×4 and sends the piece of wood flying into the corner of his brother’s mouth – missing his eye by only a few inches.

Solution:
While the younger brother should have stepped out of the line of fire, it’s clear that these two brothers didn’t know how to properly use a nail gun. Moreover, they shouldn’t have been using one without adult supervision.

McCarthy’s advice is straightforward: “If you don’t really know how to use a power tool, you should seek instruction before you purchase one,” he says. “Chainsaws are a good example. If you don’t know how to operate a chainsaw, you probably shouldn’t be buying one. That’s true of all kinds of table saws and band saws because they are not forgiving if you make a mistake.”

Emery recommends following these tips from the National Safety Council to safely use hand and power tools:

• Use the correct tool for the job.
• Keep tools in good condition. Handles should be tight and free from defect. Cutting tools should be kept sharp. Wedges and punches should be free from “mushroom heads.”
• Use and maintain power tools according to their instructions.
• Make sure power tools are properly grounded or are double insulated. Never cut off the grounding prong of a three-prong plug or use a two-prong adapter.
• Switch off and unplug power tools before changing blades or servicing and repairing.
• Wear clothing with no strings or loose ends to catch on things.
• Wear appropriate personal protective equipment, such as glasses, goggles, dust masks, face shields, hearing protection, etc.
• Keep bystanders at a safe distance.
• Keep all guards and shields in place. Learn to use a “push stick” with table saws to keep hands away from the saw blade.
• Unplug and put tools away after use. Consider locking up power tools to prevent others from using them without permission, especially young children.

Problem:
On a cold winter night, an elderly woman turns on her oven and opens its door to warm up her house. She then curls up in her chair to watch the evening news. After a while, she nods off. She never awakes.

Solution:
The elderly woman in the scenario died from breathing in fumes from carbon monoxide (CO) – a poisonous gas that is odorless, colorless and tasteless. CO is the most common cause of poisoning death in the United States.

“Carbon monoxide is the product of incomplete combustion, so anything that burns produces CO,” says Caroline Fife, MD, hyperbaric medicine expert at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

Common sources of CO are gas-powered generators and space heaters, gas ovens and ranges, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves and gas furnaces. “Most of the time, the space heater or fireplace has an odor because it is burning something, but you are not smelling the CO gas itself,” Fife explains.

Fife says the most common symptom of CO poisoning is headache, followed by nausea and vomiting, then loss of consciousness. “The smallest people in the house and those nearest the source are affected first, so children will usually get sick before parents,” she says.

Prevent CO poisoning by following these rules from the Environmental Protection Agency:

• Inspect all fuel-burning appliances annually, including oil and gas furnaces, gas water heaters, gas ranges and ovens, gas dryers, gas or kerosene space heaters, fireplaces and wood stoves.
• Choose appliances that vent their fumes to the outside.
• Never allow your car to idle in a garage, even if the garage door is open.
• Never use a gas oven to heat your home, even for a short time.
• Never use a charcoal grill indoors.
• Never sleep in a room with an unvented gas or kerosene space heater.
• Never use gasoline-powered engines, such as mowers, weed trimmers, snow blowers, chainsaws, small engines or generators, in enclosed spaces.

It’s also a good idea to equip your home with a carbon monoxide detector.

Make your life and your family’s lives safer by remembering that it’s always better to be educated about the risks of everyday activities in the home and around the home.

 

Last Updated: 2-25-2009

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