What should a parent know about child home safety?

Answer 1

Some of the most serious health problems for your children may start in your home. This booklet explains some of these health concerns and tells what you can do about home safety. Allergies and Asthma are health problems that may be caused or made worse by things in the air you breathe. Since you and your children spend a lot of time at home, the air inside needs to be clean. Does someone smoke in your house? Do you have pets? Is your basement damp? These may cause, or add to, breathing problems. Too much dampness can cause mold to grow. Some mold is very harmful and some can make allergies or asthma worse. There are household products and chemicals that are dangerous to breathe (click here to learn more about household products). Stoves and heaters may produce harmful gases in your home if they are not used properly. It is important to let fresh air in and bad air out. Do you want to know if your home has healthy air? Click here. Until recently paint and water pipes often had a metal in them called lead. Lead was also in gasoline and got into the air and soil from car exhaust. It's not used in these ways any more, but there is still plenty of lead around. Lead can poison your children by getting into their mouths or breathing it in from the air. If a pregnant woman gets lead in her body, it can harm the unborn baby. Lead poisoning is a serious problem for young children. It can cause problems with learning, growth and behavior that can last a whole lifetime. Even small amounts of lead can be harmful. Most problems with lead come from old paint. You are most likely to have lead in your home if you live in an older house or apartment. You can't always tell if you have a lead problem just by looking. Lead can be a fine dust from the paint in your house or in dirt tracked inside. Lead can also be in the soil and air around your home or in your drinking water. Click here to see about lead poisoning in your home. Do you know where your drinking water comes from? If it comes from your own well, you need to make sure it is safe to drink. Have your water tested every year to make sure it does not have chemicals in it that can make your family sick. There are things you can do to take care of your well to keep the water clean. Click here for ideas. You may get your drinking water from a water company. Water companies always test the water before they pipe it to your house to make sure it is safe. You can ask them to give you a report on what they found in the tests. Even if it is okay at the water company, the water can still become unsafe after it gets in your home. Click here to see if your water is safe to drink. Some products in your home can harm your family's health if they are not used properly. Common chemicals like bleach, rat poison, paint strippers, and drain cleaners can be dangerous. Children can be poisoned if they get into harmful products. Even very small amounts of some chemicals can cause health problems if you touch them or breathe them in. Remember: if you spray or pump something, it goes right into the air. When you and your family breathe, those chemicals can enter your bodies. Click here to learn more about how to use, store and dispose of household products. Almost every household uses pesticides. But most people do not understand that pesticides can be a danger. Bug spray, flea powder, rat poison, and garden weed killer are all types of pesticides. These products have chemicals that kill pests. That also means they can harm you and your family. If they are not used safely, some pesticides may cause serious health problems