In addition to the chronic health impacts of unhealthy
housing such as lead poisoning,
asthma, and cancer,
unsafe housing conditions also interfere with the immediate health and well being
of children through unintentional injuries. The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention states that unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in
all children ages 1-21. However, there is a disparity in the rates that these
accidental injuries are experienced. Individuals with low socioeconomic standing,
especially urban African-American children, have historically experienced greater
rates of injury. Additionally, male children also tend to experience a higher
rate of injury.
Although the type of unintentional
injury most likely to occur varies with the age of the child, the
National Safe Kids Campaign identifies fire, drowning, suffocation,
choking, falls, unintentional firearm injury, and poisoning as leading
causes of death in the home.
Although unintentional injuries are by definition accidental,
there are basic precautions that can be taken in the home to help limit the
conditions conducive to injury:
Properly and consistently use safety devices such as smoke detectors, bicycle
helmets, gates, and child-proof containers and latches.
Actively supervise children’s activities, including continuously monitoring
children while they are in or near water and generally restricting children’s
access to areas containing potentially hazardous materials or objects.
Keep other dangerous items out of children’s reach—knives, handles
from pots on the stove, hot liquids, appliance and window treatment cords,
etc.
Know and have accessible important phone numbers—emergency response
teams, poison control, family doctors, etc.
Additional behaviors, such as refraining from cigarette
smoking in the home, can reduce multiple health risks to children including
chronic health impacts (asthma)
as well as unintentional injury—residential fires caused by smoking materials
(including cigarettes) are the leading cause of fire-related death.
Creating a safer home environment will serve not only to
lower the risk of children’s unintentional injury, but also to assist
in the establishment of an overall healthier home environment. For information
on the housing hazards most often associated with children’s health and
suggestions on how to control them in the home, visit Health
Hazards and Ensuring
Quality Housing Conditions.
