Injuries at home or in your yard can be prevented. Here’s a look at some key changes you can make to improve home safety.
Poisoning
More than 90% of poisonings happen at home. Poisoning is the leading cause of unintentional death. It happens when you swallow, inhale, or inject a large amount of a toxic substance into your body, and this makes you sick.
Drug overdoses are the most common causes of poisoning, specifically opioid overdoses. Many adults and young adults misuse opioids and prescription painkillers. Researchers found that 10 million people aged 12 and over had misused prescription painkillers in the past year.
Young children are often poisoned by swallowing medicines and household products, including:
- cosmetics,
- cleaning supplies,
- button batteries,
- laundry soap pods, and
- dishwasher soap pods.
Small children explore the world by putting things in their mouths, which puts them at risk of swallowing something dangerous. Some products like laundry soap pods are bright and colorful and might look like candies to children.
How to Prevent Poisoning
You can prevent poisonings with some simple precautions.
Keep poisonous substances out of reach. Store cosmetics, cleaning products, medicines, and other chemicals out of reach of your children and in locked cabinets.
Store products in original containers. Keep products in their original packaging. Don’t use water bottles, cups, jugs, or other containers to store products. This helps to ensure that dangerous products are not accidentally drunk or misused.
Use medicines as prescribed. Keep your medicines in properly labelled bottles, and use them only as prescribed. Follow the instructions as some medicines can’t be safely taken with alcohol or other medicines.
If you take medicines in the night, turn the light on, and read the label to make sure you’re taking the right medicine in the right quantity.
Get rid of unused products. Don’t keep unused medicines, cleaning products, or other toxic chemicals around. Some medicines must be flushed because they are immediately dangerous to others, some can be returned, and some can be thrown in the trash. Read the labels and talk to your pharmacist.
Falls
Many falls cause serious injuries like broken bones and head injuries. Among older adults, falls are some of the most common home injuries. About 3 million older adults get emergency medical care for falls every year. These falls can make it difficult for people to get around and can create a fear of falling that causes some people to avoid activities they usually enjoy.
Older adults fall for lots of different reasons, including:
- use of medications that affect balance,
- lower body weakness,
- diseases like Parkinson’s that cause problems walking,
- a lack of vitamin D,
- eyesight problems, and
- home hazards like slipping on objects.
Falls are the greatest cause of nonfatal injuries in children aged 0 to 19. Children can fall:
- off playground equipment,
- down stairs,
- during sports activities, and
- out of cribs.
Preventing Home Falls
To prevent falls, you can take the following precautions:
Safety-proof your home. Install baby gates to stop small children from falling down the stairs. Guard rails can help prevent falls from beds, and handrails in the washroom can help you move around safely. Fix broken steps and stairs, and install slip-proof rubber grips under rugs.
Use safety gear in sports. Both children and adults should wear a helmet and other safety gear while playing sports or biking. This protects you in case of a fall.
Strength training. Do exercises to build strength and balance. This can help you build lower body strength, helping to prevent falls.
Drownings
Drownings can happen in the bathtub, the kitchen sink, or, often, in backyard pools. Backyard pools cause the most drownings, but the water doesn't need to be as deep as this for children to drown in it.
A nonfatal drowning is when you survive a drowning. Nonfatal drownings can cause brain injuries and other problems that lead to disability. The highest drowning rates are among children aged one to four years, but the rates are also high among adults with alcohol use and conditions like seizures, autism, and heart disease.
Water Safety at Home
Prevent drownings with the following measures:
Swimming lessons. Enroll children in formal swimming lessons, and learn CPR. This can lower the risk of drowning.
Supervision. Children must be supervised around water. Drownings can happen even while there is a lifeguard on duty. Better supervision lowers the risk.
Install fences. Put a fence around the pool so that it is separated from the house and the yard. This can lower the risk of drowning by 83%.
Outlook
Poisoning, falls, and drowning are just some of the most common household injuries that can pose a risk to both children and adults. While some injuries can lead to death or disability, many people make a full recovery. You can prevent injuries by being extra careful about safety and taking a few simple precautions.