Easy Steps to Make Your Home Accident Proof

According to national statistics from The Home Safety Council, twenty one million Americans are seriously injured in their home and 20,000 die from the mishaps in their home. Here are easy steps to help make your home accident proof.

Install handrails in showers and on both sides of the staircase.

Check smoke alarms monthly and replace batteries every year. Replace smoke alarms with new ones every ten years.

Install carbon monoxide detectors in every bedroom. If you have any devices in the house, which burn oil, coal or gas, install a carbon monoxide detector at least 15 feet away from these.

If your home was built in 1978 and under, there could be lead in the paint fragments in and around your home or there could be lead in the water.

Keep a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and learn how to use it.

Install lighting at both the front and back entrances to your home.

Keep all cords to lamps and other electrical products out of the flow of traffic to prevent any tripping or falling.

Use ladders or step stools to reach things up high.

Keep all the lids to toilets closed.

Never leave a child unattended in the bathtub. It only takes a second for a child to drown.

If you are working inside a garage make sure there is adequate ventilation to prevent the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

If you have toddlers install safety gates at the bottom of any stairs and at the top.

Childproof all medicine cabinets as well as kitchen and bathroom cabinets.

Keep the cords to all kitchen appliances out of the reach of children.

Keep all stairways and halls well lit.

When you are cooking on the kitchen stove turn the handles of pots and pans in towards the stove to prevent them from getting knocked off or grabbed by a child and causing burns.

For more information about home safety go online and visit homesafetycouncil.org