Safety In The Home (Helpful Tips and Tricks)

Being safe implies a state of being protected from danger and harm.¹ Home on the other hand, is the place where one lives, especially with one’s family.¹ there are frequently hazards lurking around the home, and these make the home unsafe.

Hazard is a thing that can be dangerous or cause damage; a danger or risk that can cause harm or even kill someone. Usually home is a place to relax, play and enjoy with family and loved ones. Minor injuries may occasionally occur, but severe injuries and hazards are usually preventable. Some of the hazards are commonly associated with certain parts of the home.

House is a physical structure that is erected with the primary aim of providing shelter to the occupants.² The house is a key component of the home that now extends to the immediate surroundings and the environment generally. The quality, location, facilities and amenities in a house; has a lot to do with the health of the occupants.

The World Health Organization stated in 2018, that “Improved housing conditions can save lives, prevent disease, increase quality of life, reduce poverty, help mitigate climate change”.³ It is estimated that about 33 million people suffer home injury each year, and most of these injuries are preventable.⁴

In Public Health, there are globally accepted qualities of a good house. These are;²

1. Basic Physiological Needs: The house should be able to provide the following basic physiological needs;
   • Satisfactory ventilation: Good ventilation ensures that the house is not uncomfortable as a result of heat and stuffy nature of the environment. Good ventilation can be achieved through proper placement of doors and windows, or through artificial means such as air-conditioners and fans.            
   • Satisfactory lightening: Poor lightening of a house can ultimately affect sight, and also could generally cause discomfort and psychological problems to people who live in the house. Adequate lightening inside the house can be achieved through proper positioning of the house during construction, or artificially through the use of electricity, lanterns, etc
   • Adequate protection against excessive noise:  This usually can be done by siting the house away from areas where you chronically have noise nuisance. Such areas include airports or noisy factory sites. On the other hand, one can use some special building materials that insulate the house from excessive noise.
2. Basic Psychological Needs: There are some psychological needs that assist in making a home a happy place, if put in place during the building of the house. These needs include;
   • Provision of space and gadgets for recreational activities: Recreational equipment must not be expensive gym equipment. Simple indoor games materials can serve in providing recreational activities for inmates of a home. Any little space can also serve. The important thing is to deliberately make efforts to observe recreational activities in the home. It has a lot of psychological benefits, and ultimately keeping the inmates healthy.
   • Protection from entry by burglars and intruders: In locations with high incidence of robbery and crime, people living in a house feel more relaxed and at peace; if there are metal bars on the doors and windows, or other forms of physical protection from intruders. Perimeter fencing with electric barbed wire on top, and strong gate is also psychologically re-assuring. It is also recommended that those that can afford it, install CCTV cameras.
   • Separate and spacious rooms for sleeping and living: Congested houses are detrimental to health. Those houses are usually stuffy, and enhance disease transmission. On the other hand, if there are enough rooms with adequate spaces, the occupants are generally happy and more stable psychologically.
   • Adequate privacy for house occupants: Privacy in the home enhances psychological well-being and happiness of individuals in a house. For instance, individuals in a house should be able to remove their cloth or put on another one at will, without waiting for others to vacate the room. It is recommended that even siblings who are 10 years and above, should have separate rooms for males and females.

3. Protection Against Accidents: It is very important not to build houses in areas that are very prone to accidents. An example of such area is close to the road, and at a bend. Vehicles are at high speed can skid off the road and crash into the building. It is also important that good quality materials are used in building houses, to avoid building collapse and injury/death to the occupants. Good, and professional done electrical wiring of the build is necessary to avoid electrical accidents and fire incidents. Cylinders of fire extinguisher ought to be placed at strategic locations in the house.
4. Protection Against Contagious Diseases: Houses to be built in such a way that there are no openings or cracks on the walls, through which rodents and other dangerous creatures such as snakes could gain access to the interior of the building. Rodents such as multimammate rat could contaminate food items in the house with Lassa fever virus. To protect against contagious diseases, houses should have adequate supply of potable water, adequate sewage and refuse disposal facilities. Food and all edible items should have proper storage and preservation facilities, to avoid contamination. Inside and outside the house should always be kept clean, with the grasses cut, and drainages washed. This way, breeding sites for mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches and other vectors for disease transmission are destroyed.

Types of Home Hazards

Certain types of home hazards are found more in particular areas of the house, or compound.

1. Kitchen: Hazards that are commonly associated with the kitchen are fire/burns, falls, air pollution, food poisoning, kerosene poisoning, knife cuts, etc. Cooking equipment such as gas cooker and kerosene stove are common sources of fire outbreak in the kitchen. It is important to make sure that the gas cylinder regulator is functioning well. Leakages could lead to fire outbreak. One should also make deliberate efforts to ensure that adulterated kerosene is not used in the cooking stove. This has also led to explosions in the past and fire outbreak. It is recommended that the gas cylinder is left outside that house, and piped into the kitchen with a flexible hose. Other important precautions against fire in the kitchen include always paying adequate attention to any item that is being cooked, and making sure that the match box is kept out of the reach of children. Those that use firewood or charcoal to cook outside the house, should also ensure that the fire is effectively put out after cooking. Fire extinguisher is very important in every kitchen. Installation of smoke detector in the house helps to identify fire incidents at the early stages. Falls are mostly prevented by keeping the kitchen floor dry always, while not using firewood/charcoal/kerosene stove inside the kitchen minimizes air pollution. Ensuring that the gas cooker regulating knobs, and the gas cylinder regulator are effectively turned off after use; is very important in preventing leakage and pollution inside the house. Not observing proper hygiene procedures while preparing meals, and not prospering storing food; frequently leads to food poisoning, which could be life threatening in some cases. Some people are distracted while using sharp knife to slice or peel food items in the kitchen, with resultant injury to the hand.
2. Eating room: Hazards associated with eating room in the house include; choking, food poisoning, swallowing of bones, overfeeding, etc. Choking is inability to breath, as a result of obstruction of the airway by probably food material such as hard lump of food item. Babies can choke on regurgitated meal when they are lying down, if not properly positioned. Children are more prone to choking in the home than adult. Choking of children is certainly added stress and pain for adults, which can adversely affect the health of the adults. People should imbibe meal etiquette such as not talking while eating, in order to avoid or minimize choking. Children should also be made to learn this. Children should also learn not to put large quantities of food in their mouth at a time. In clear cases of choking, urgent action is needed to unblock the airway. Heimlich maneuver or Abdominal thrusts is applied immediately to relieve the obstruction. This maneuver is only applied if the person’s life is in danger. If the person is able to talk, cough, or breath at all, then encourage him/her to keep coughing vigorously. The obstructing object might be dislodged through this means. Heimlich maneuver was invented by Dr Henry Heimlich in 1974, and recommended only for use on conscious persons. It consists of;⁵
   • Standing behind the victim with both arms placed around his/her abdomen
   • One of the hands is made into a fist, and the other one is clasped tightly around the wrist of the hand
   • The thumb side of the fist is place about 2 inches above the navel, under the rib cage.
   • The hands are then sharply and quickly thrust inwards and upwards five times.
   • This process is repeated until the obstructing object is dislodged

Backslaps with the chest resting on your forearm or thigh, and head tilted lower than their body is recommended for infants. Use the heel of your palm and strike the child five times between the shoulder blades. Check the infant’s mouth and remove visible objects.⁵ Hazard of food poisoning occur in the eating room, if the food was not properly preserved and stored after preparation.

Adequately subjecting pre-cooked food to heat before eating helps to prevent food poisoning. Some food poisoning can be life-threatening; hence all efforts should be made to prevent food poisoning. Fish bone also can pose significant hazard, if adequate care was not taken to ensure that the bones were removed prior to using the fish to prepare a meal.

3. Bathroom:  Falls are largely the most common form of hazards encountered in the bathroom. Slippery bathtubs and floors are the most common catalysts causing fall. Always keeping the bathroom floor dry, using non-skid surface for the bathroom floor and bathtub floor, and installing grab bars to assist in getting in and out of bathtub and shower; help prevent falls in the bathroom.⁴ It is also recommended that towels or mats are placed just outside the bathtub or shower, so that people dry the soles of their feet immediately they step out of the bathtub or shower.⁶ This measure also helps in preventing falls in the bathroom. Electrocution is a possible hazard in the bathroom if electrical gadgets such as hair dryers and electric razor are not unplugged after use. Drowning is another hazard that can occur in the bathroom, especially among children. To prevent this, pool of water should not be left in the bathtub, and large water containers should not be filled with water and left in the bathroom if children are living in the house. Poisoning with chemical substances used in the bathroom such as, antiseptics, soap, shampoo, cleaning products, etc, can also occur, if not securely locked up in a small cupboard; so that children do not have access to them. Hot water burn is also a hazard that can occur in the bathroom. It is important that the temperature of water that will be used for bathing is not high enough to cause burn or scalding. Using phone in the bathroom is not recommended, since it can cause distraction, leading to fatal fall.
4. Bedrooms: Proper steps ought to be taken to avoid electrocution in the bedroom. This can be done by ensuring that there are no naked wires and broken electric sockets in the rooms. One should also avoid overloading electrical outlets and extension cords to prevent electrocution and fire outbreaks in the bedrooms and other places in the home. 

Hazards of falls are still found in the bedrooms, if they are not kept tidy and clean. The rooms should be clutter free, and clear passage routes in the rooms clearly identifiable. The floor of the rooms should also be kept dry always. Any drugs or chemicals that is being used by adults or children ought to be safely locked up in a safe cabinet or cupboard, to prevent children from accessing them and getting poisoned.

If adults in the home own firearms, they must ensure that those firearms are safely locked in any place that is inaccessible to children. Children experimenting with firearms had resulted in fatal outcomes in the past.

It is also important to prevent transmission of Communicable diseases in the bedrooms, by ensuring that the rooms are not stuffy, and are properly ventilated. The rooms should always be kept clean, and made free of rodents, flies, mosquitos and other disease vectors. It is recommended that mosquito nets be put on the doors and windows, to prevent mosquitos and flies from gaining access to the rooms.

Radiation from TV/Mobile phones is also a possible hazard in the bedroom. Televisions kept in the bedrooms should not be positioned directly opposite the sleeping bed, and should also be placed reasonably away from the bed, depending on the dimensions of the room. Mobile phones should also not be kept on the bed while sleeping. They should be kept at a reasonable distance away from the bed. These electronic gadgets are known to emit some radiations that are hazardous to health.

Leaving plastic bags around in the bedroom could pose danger to children. Children could inadvertently cover their head and face with these cellophane materials, leading to suffocation. One should also be careful not to leave burning candles unattended to, since this could lead to fire outbreak. Overloaded outlets and extension cords can also lead to fire outbreak in the bedroom. It is very wrong to ever leave any type of fire or hot electrical appliance unattended. Keeping rooms well-lit all the time is a good practice, so that any potentially dangerous object or creature is detected immediately.⁷

5. Laundry: Risk of falls and drowning also exist in the laundry section of the home. Special care should be taken to ensure that the floor is kept dry and children prevented from having access to the laundry. Detergents and other chemicals used for laundry services should also be safely kept, to prevent children from ingesting them.
6. Garage: Carbon monoxide poisoning could occur in the garage if the garage door is closed and the engine left to be running. If a child inadvertently goes into the garage, and no adult is around to bring him/her out, the outcome could be fatal. It is also extremely important to be careful when driving out of the garage, so that the car does not run over a child or a distracted adult.
7. Balcony and Staircase: Some fatal falls have occurred through the balconies, as a result of the physical barricades on those balconies being weak and unstable. Leaning on such balconies are usually risky. It is therefore very important that the materials used to make barricades for balconies are very strong and firm. This is particularly very important for balconies that are located on the upper floors of a building that has more than one floor. For added safety, some people put metal barricades to completely cover the whole length of the balconies.

Staircase is another section of the home that should be kept dry always and clutter-free, in order to prevent falls. The handrails must also be firm and stable so that it does not crumble if someone leans on it. In addition to staircases, all walkways in the home should also be kept dry and clutter-free.⁴ Staircases and walkways should always be well-lit in the home.

8. Outside the house: Swimming pool is usually outside the house, and pose one grave danger of drowning, to people who live in the house, especially children or visitors. Steps should be taken to ensure that children do not have access to swimming pool. Adults ought to be properly trained before making use of swimming pool.

Littering the compound with sharps such as broken bottles and nails is very hazardous. Puncture injuries from such sharps could result in life-threatening situations such as Tetanus, diabetic foot ulcer for those who are diabetic. It is also very important that the compound is kept clean, with grasses/shrubs properly trimmed and drainages cleaned.

This way, reptiles, rodents, mosquitos and some other disease vectors are eliminated from the compound. One should also be certain that recreation facilities in the compound, such as swing-stand for children are kept in good working condition, so that they do not pose danger to the residents in the compound.

9. Miscellaneous hazards in the home: There are some hazards that cannot be said to occur more in any particular section of the home. Some of them are;
   • Domestic violence, which is a situation where one of the spouses or other occupants of the home physically or emotionally assault the other. Some domestic violence episodes have had fatal outcomes.
   • Child abuse is a situation where an adult living with a child, subjects that child to physical or emotional torture. Some, subject underaged children to different types of child-labour, including hawking. Child abuse is against the law, even if the child biologically belongs to the adult who is abusing him/her. If caught, the offender may be punished, as prescribed by law; thus, jeopardizing his/her chances of living a happy life.
   • Rape is a problem that is rising is some homes now. In so many cases, this crime is committed against children by family friends, neighbours, employees/co-workers and relatives; who apparently are trusted by the parents. It is important that the parents are extremely observant, so that they can detect unusual behaviours and movements of family friends and relatives towards the children and adolescents in the home. Parents should also form the habit of counseling their children about sexual abuse, and raising alarm if need be. Worrisome angle to this rape problem is incest, where siblings engage in sexual activities or parents having sexual intercourse with their children. Each should be aware that incest is a possibility, and guard against it
   • Pet bite can pose a grave hazard in the home. If cats and dogs that are used as pets in the home, are not vaccinated as, and when due; they may be infected with rabies and subsequently serve as source of infection to inmates of the home.
   • Burglary is a hazard that is common is certain locations. Some burglary activities may result in fatal outcomes such as death of some inmates of the home. It is recommended that steps are taken to protect homes from the activities of burglars and robbers. Such steps include;
   • Installing very strong metal doors
   • Always keep doors closed and locked
   • Instruct children never to open doors or gate for strangers. They must always inform an adult any time any person is at the door.
   • Always confirm person(s) at the door, through a peephole before opening the door.
   • Installing strong metal bars across the windows, but using detachable bars for one window that should be designated escape root, in case of emergency such as fire outbreak.
   • Installing Close-Circuit Cameras to monitor activities in the home, in real time.
   • Keeping contact information of security agencies within reach, so that they can be quickly informed of suspicious movements around your home.
   • Install bright outside lights in the compound, and ensure that the entire compound is well illuminated in the night.
   • Do not share information about your movement or the movement of your family on the internet. This information may encourage robbers to plan braking into your home in your absence.
   • Do not leave empty containers of expensive home gadgets or equipment outside your home, where they are visible to passers-by. These usually give robbers ideas of what is within the home.
   • Do not allow any one make spare keys to your home, and do not leave your spare keys for any hired maintenance worker. 
   • Create the illusion that someone is in the house, anytime everybody in the home is traveling. This can be done by- leaving all the outside lights on, and few lights in the rooms on.

• Fraud is an illegal way of obtaining money or other valuable items through deception or unfair practices. It is one of the hazards found in some homes, if the inmates are not alert, or are greedy. Scammers can sweet-talk some people into voluntarily parting with substantial amount ofmoney or wealth. It is recommended that people do not entertain guests or friend who put significant pressure on them, while trying to convince them to buy into any claimed huge money-making venture.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning from generator fumes could occur if a generator is positioned in such a way as to discharge the exhaust fumes into any part of the interior of the home. The fumes silently and gradually kill people who inhale significant amount of it, especially in their sleep.

Essential Steps Towards Making The Home Safe

The broad steps include;

1. Actively searching for, and spotting the hazard
2. Taking a decision on how to deal with the hazard. That is removing the hazard, Guarding against the hazard, Close supervision of the children, etc)
3. Implementing your decision

Summary Of Specific Tips, On How To Make The Home Safe

These specific actions, among others may be taken to make the home safe;

• Safety education for members of the household
• Ensure availability of fire extinguisher at all times
• Maintain clean and dry floor all over
• Proper food hygiene
• Prevent children from having access to kitchen, bathroom, swimming pool, garage and laundry
• Avoid indoor smoke – kerosene stove and fire wood
• Be careful with kitchen gadgets
• Keeping kerosene securely locked
• Good table etiquette while eating
• Careful removal of bones prior to cooking
• Adopting good eating habits
• Installing smoke detectors and fire alarm gadgets
• Proper ventilation of house
• Avoiding the use of naked lights in the home
• Buying only safe toys for children
• Installing barriers to children accessing swimming pool
• Ensuring environmental cleanliness
• Stable and safe playing gadgets for children
• Deliberately striving towards marital harmony
• More tolerance and understanding for children
• Close watchfulness over children’s relationship with relations, neighbours, friends and employees
• Security consciousness
• Avoid get-rich quick syndrome/unrealistic shortcuts to solving problems
• Proper lighting of steps, stair cases and outdoors
• Avoid slippery highly polished floors
• Erect firm railings for steps and balconies
• Remove objects that children might use to stand close to balconies
• Do not leave children alone in the bathroom
• Cover buckets and basins of water tightly if there are little children in the house
• Keep drugs and chemicals in locked containers
• Turn off and unplug all electrical gadgets when not in use
• Ensure that electrical gadgets are in good working condition
• Replace damaged electrical sockets
• Ensure children sit down quietly to eat
• No forced feeding for distressed children
• Keep plastic bags out of the reach of children
• Keep pets away from children
• Keep only healthy pets
• This list is by no way, exhaustive. You can always add more specific tips, deriving from your home

REFERENCES

1. Robinson M, Davidson G. Chambers 21^st Century Dictionary. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd. Edinburgh, Scotland; 2007
2. Obionu CN. Guide to Tropical Public Health and Community Medicine. First Edition. Published by EZE BOOKS LIMITED, Enugu, Nigeria; 2018.
3. World Health Organization. WHO Housing and Health Guidelines – 2018. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland; 2018.
4. https://www.emergencyphysicians.org/article/health–safety-tips/home-safety-checklist#: (Accessed, 16/02/2024)
5. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/21675-heimlich-maneuver (Accessed, 16/02/2024)
6. https://staysafe.org/safety-at-home-10-common-safety-hazards-around-the-house/ (Accessed, 16/02/2024)
7. https://www.atlantictraining.com/safety-tips/home-safety-tips.php    (Accessed, 16/02/2024)