Your home safety checklist

 

 

“I was fortunate that my brother acted fast and switched off the power at the fuse box.”

From then on, I knew safety especially at home is everybody’s business, Kyakuwa confesses.

 

Every household is vulnerable to risk due to various safety hazards, Moses Mutinyi, who has done research on home safety says.

 

Mutinyi says almost 20% of all fatalities and disabling injuries occur in and around the home.

A 2001 survey carried out by the Makerere University Department of Surgery on injury patterns in rural and urban households showed that in 1,673 of the rural households surveyed, 29% of fatalities including deaths occurred at home.

 

Forty five percent of disabling injuries in rural areas occurred at home and 267 people who were recovering from injuries in the rural areas occurred at home. 

 

In the 2,322 households surveyed in urban areas, injury disabilities at home had a prevalence proportion of 2.8%.

According to Mutinyi, children and older people whose bones are less sturdier are especially vulnerable to serious injuries from home accidents.

 

High risk areas in homes such as bathrooms, kitchens, workshops, basements and swimming pools account for most fatalities that occur in urban households.

 

Falls, fires, burns, poisoning, suffocation, drowning, electrocution are all frequent causes of home accidents.

Mutinyi says individual awareness, planning for emergencies and pinpointing safety hazards in the home is the first step towards decreasing accidents at home.

 

For general safety, Mutinyi says, it is wise to have all the doors in the house equipped with lever action handles instead of round Knobs because many people will run towards the door in the event of emergencies. Lever action doors make opening doors quick and easy.

 

In addition to alarms and fire extinguishers, draw up a safe exit plan especially if your home has two floors. Consider an escape ladder.

 

When building it is important to follow specific safety measures like proper earthing and insulating electric appliances. 

A house should have circuit breakers, fuses and ground fault circuit interrupters.

 

The bathroom is a high risk area due to the use of water, soap, shampoos, detergent and chemicals. Therefore, people have to be careful to use slippers in the bathroom and to keep the  floor dry most of the time and always have a nonslip mat or nonslip surface near the bathtub or shower stall.

 

Brian Alitonda and electrical engineer says, it is important to keep electrical fixtures away from the bathtub to avoid accidents. Alitonda, says: “Water heater thermostats should always be set at 120 degrees Fahrenheit or lower to prevent accidental scalding”. If you are not familiar with the controls of your water heater, ask a qualified person to adjust it for you.

 

The bathroom should always have enough light, but also avoid keeping poisonous chemicals like acids in the bathroom, says Alitonda.

Stairs should have enough light and equipped with hand rails.

 “With a hand rail on the staircase, accidental stumbles and falls along the stairs are minimised, says” Mutinyi.

 

Fitting the stairs with baby gates would enhance child safety at the stairs. Mutinyi says, as a way of minimising accidents on the staircase small rugs should be kept away from the foot and head of stairs.

 

To ensure safety in the kitchen, Mutinyi asserts, keep all household cleaners and insecticides separate from the food and out of the reach of children.

 

Another safety tip he gives is storing matches in a closed metal container and away from heat.

In addition, wooden ladles should be kept away from fire. Kyakuwa says in the kitchen, one should always be careful when frying or cooking with oil. Kitchen burns as a result of hot oils are a common home accident. 

 

All flammable items [paint, rags, paraffin] should be stored safely in closed containers and preferably away from the living area, Kyakuwa advises. “Keep all flammable items away from any source of fire or heat,” adds Mutinyi.

 

 He also cautions against using electrical power tools while standing on wet surfaces in the basement. 

He says, radio and television should be switched off during heavy rains that have thunder, or when you are away from home for a long time. 

 

It is also not advisable to leave your phone charging and move out of the house for a longtime. There can be a short circuit. This should be done to keep your home safe, Mutinyi advises.

 

Highly polished floors may look attractive and easy to clean, but they are slippery too, says Kyakuwa. 

Furniture, Mutinyi says should be kept away from walking spaces in rooms. 

 

“Book shelves, tall dressers, refrigerators should be kept out of walkways.” It is also advisable to keep wooden tables and not glass tables if you have children. A glass table can easily cut your child in case he or she accidently breaks it, he says.

 

Mutinyi says to minimise accidents it is advisable to keep the floor clean and dry all the time.