Real, simple solutions to a simple problem: Home safety products for child protection

A recent, important study published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine was largely ignored by the popular press. It shows that a few simple and cost-effective measures can be implemented at home to protect children from common safety hazards. Dr. Bruce Lanphear and colleagues from Cincinnati Children’s Environmental Health recruited 350 expectant mothers and inspected their homes for potential injury hazards, such as unlocked cabinets, unstable furniture and accessible electrical sockets. Then, they randomly assigned half of the women to have safety equipment installed in their homes, such as safety gates, cabinet locks and smoke detectors, once the children reached the age of six months.

After two years of monitoring, the researchers discovered that for every 100 kids in homes with safety equipment installed, the incidence of preventable injuries was dramatically reduced: only two injuries out of every 100 homes with safety products were reported versus eight injuries in unequipped homes. Dr. Lanphear notes that the estimated $1,000 price tag for the equipment and its installation would pay for itself by preventing the costs associated with medical bills for preventable injuries.

“These may seem like commonsense preventive measures to some folks, but most people don’t know about many of these safeguards until something bad happens,” says ACSH’s Cheryl Martin. “It isn’t always obvious, and it’s easy to forget some of these potential hazards.”

ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross believes this study is a perfect example of a real health threat. “This is something that can actually save 2,500 children’s lives annually. So parents should stop focusing on phony scares — emptying their shelves of ‘toxic’ plastic bottles and taking their shoes off for fear of exposing their kids to ‘poisonous’ levels of chemicals found on the floor — and start paying attention to real dangers by taking these simple steps to baby-proof their homes.”