Household Hazards and How to Protect Against Them

Home should be your safe haven, but, unfortunately, tens of thousands of Americans die from preventable household injuries every year. In fact, according to the National Security Council, the United States saw over 90,000 preventable household-injury-related deaths in 2017 alone. Despite this staggering statistic, many dismiss the threat of most household hazards, considering them far-fetched or low-risk. However, it’s this very attitude of cavalier confidence that makes these household hazards so dangerous. The good news is there are steps you can take to protect against these hazards and genuinely make the difference between life and death. Countless household injuries each year can be prevented simply through a better awareness of what can go wrong, so it’s important to take the time to learn about the various hazards around your home as well as the strategies to prevent them from bringing harm to you or your family. Here are some tips to keep your home safe:

Kitchen

Prevent a house fire by checking kitchen appliances for exposed wires and keeping them unplugged when they’re not in use, as faulty wiring and overheating are both common sources for house fires. If you have any antique appliances in your home, ensure that they’ve been marked with the UL (Underwriters Laboratories) mark of safety verification.
Protect against the risk of electrocution by keeping portable appliances away from the kitchen sink or any other water source.
Clean your oven—dirty oven interiors are house fires waiting to happen.
Make sure you have a fire extinguisher that’s equipped for liquid and electrical fires in your kitchen.
To prevent accidental slices, keep your knives sharp and avoid using dull knives. Though it may seem counterintuitive, dull knives are often more dangerous than sharp ones. Dull knives require more force than sharp knives do and are therefore more likely to lead to dangerous mishaps.
Clean your dishwasher. Dishwasher door gaskets are susceptible to fungus and black yeast, which can be dangerous if ingested. To disinfect your dishwasher, place a cup of white vinegar on the top rack and run it on high. Then, sprinkle a cup of baking soda on the dishwasher’s floor and run it on high again.

Living Room

If you have window blinds in your home, purchase a blind cord “wind-up,” which houses excess cord and reduces the risk of strangulation and other injuries. These products typically cost less than $5 and are easily installed. If you are looking into purchasing new blinds, consider going with a cordless option. Children and animals are prone to entangling themselves in dangling cords, resulting in strangulation. In fact, according to a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics, nearly 17,000 window-blind-related injuries to children below the age of six were reported between 1990 and 2015, averaging to nearly 650 cases per year. You can prevent this tragedy simply by securing your cords out of children’s reach or not having cords at all.
Lay a rug pad beneath your rug to prevent it from bunching up or sliding since unsecured rugs can be a major tripping hazard, especially around stairs. This simple solution can reduce the risk of a fall, which is especially important for older family members.
Electrical cords can be a tripping hazard as well. It’s not enough to simply cover up a cord with a rug. Run your cords and cables along the walls of your home rather than laying them across floors or hallways, as a bad fall can lead to hospitalization and even death.
Mounting your television reduces the risk of it being tipped off-balance and falling onto someone, which can inflict significant bodily harm.
Screening your fireplace when it’s in use and equipping it with a spark arrestor is wise since one stray spark or ember from your fireplace is all it takes to start a house fire. It’s also recommended that you have your chimney cleaned once a year, as blockages in your chimney can cause smoke and carbon monoxide to build up in your home.

Bedroom

If your home is more than two stories and your bedroom is located upstairs, you should consider purchasing a fire escape ladder, which can be found at many home improvement stores and fitted over a windowsill during an emergency. These simple devices can prevent you and your family from being trapped during a house fire and can save your lives.
Keep space heaters at least three feet from anything flammable, including furniture, bedding, and rugs (and never place a space heater on a carpeted floor). Many modern space heaters have safety features which prevent the risk of a fire, but these features only work if the heater is plugged directly into a wall outlet. When used with cheap extension cords or power strips that aren’t rated to handle the necessary amount of energy, space heaters can become a deadly source for house fires.
Mattresses and bedding can ignite within seconds if exposed to an open flame, so keep any fire or heat source—including cigarettes, lighters, and candles—far from your bed at all times.

Bathroom

Install a rubber mat in your bath tub to increase traction and reduce the chances of a nasty spill. Slips and falls in the bath or shower are some of the most common causes of household injuries.
Consider having a grab bar installed in your shower, as it makes entering, exiting, and using the shower much safer, especially for the elderly.
Unplug any bathroom appliances when not in use to prevent electrocution or overheating.
To prevent your family members or your guests from accidentally burning themselves in the bath or shower, make sure your water heater is set to 120ºF.
Never mix bathroom cleaning products, especially products containing bleach or ammonia, as these chemicals combine to form chlorine gas, which can be lethal if inhaled.

Laundry Room

Washing machine hoses can be prone to leaks or bursts, which can quickly flood your laundry room. While this flooding can of course cause unwanted damage to your flooring, walls, and furniture, it also poses the threat of electrocution. To mitigate this risk, ensure that the electrical outlets in your laundry room have ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs), which will shut off electrical power in such an event.
If you have small children and your home’s washer and dryer aren’t already equipped with built-in safety locking, consider purchasing a child-safe lock at your local home improvement store, which can be easily installed on your washer and dryer and will prevent your children from accidentally trapping themselves inside the machines.
Clear out dryer lint regularly to avoid putting your dryer at risk of causing a fire, as built-up lint and dust can reach dangerously high temperatures and start a fire.

Pool Area

Among children between the ages of one and fourteen, drowning is responsible for more deaths than almost any other cause. Household pool areas can be death traps for the young and the elderly, but there are steps you can take to make them safer. The best way to improve the safety of your pool area is with a pool fence, which will prevent any poolside tumbles from winding up deadly. Be sure to get a fence with a self-closing and self-latching gate to ensure effectiveness. If you really want to take your pool’s safety to the next level, consider also investing in an underwater alarm system, which can alert you when someone jumps or falls into your pool.

Other Hazards

Radon gas, which is present at dangerous levels in approximately 6 million homes (according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Diseases Registry), is known to cause lung cancer. Purchase a radon gas test kit to ensure that your home is not experiencing dangerous radon levels—anything in excess of 4 picocuries per liter (pCi/L) is considered unsafe.
To prevent intruders from forcing your sliding door open, lay a wood or metal rod on your sliding door’s track, keeping your door firmly in place.
If your home was built before 1978, it’s likely to have been painted with lead paint. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggests hiring a professional inspector to test for lead in your home if you believe it may be at risk of containing lead paint. Exposure to lead paint has been linked to a wide variety of negative health effects, including increased blood pressure, reproductive problems, and even seizures, so be sure to take action quickly if you live in a pre-1978 home.

It’s important to keep your home safe. Your space heater and dryer lint may not seem particularly threatening, but without the appropriate level of vigilance and caution, they can be downright deadly. By taking the necessary steps to keep you and your family safe from hazards like these, you drastically reduce the risk of avoidable injuries and deaths in your home from electrocution, burning, falling, and drowning. Some safety measures may seem silly or unnecessary, but they can make the difference between life and death. Ignoring even the smallest of hazards simply isn’t worth the risk. Stay sharp, stay aware, and stay safe.