What are some of the hazards present in a living room, kitchen/dining room, bathroom, bedroom? Ex.Chandeliers and big Cieling lights

Question

What are some of the hazards present in a living room, kitchen/dining room, bedroom? Ex. Chandeliers and big Ceiling lights

Answer 1

Hi, Music S.,

I went on Google Scholar (scholar.google.com/) and searched DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/) for "indoor health hazards" to find articles relevant to your question and found a couple. First, here's a peer-reviewed article that focused on home health care hazards:

Polivka, Barbara J., et al. "Environmental health and safety hazards experienced by home health care providers: A room-by-room analysis." Workplace health & safety 63.11 (2015): 512-522.

Figure 2 from that article is a great summary.

Here is a paraphrased version of the Results section of that article:

1. Living room: Clutter, throw rugs getting caught under mobility aids (e.g., walkers, wheelchairs), surfaces soiled from pet and human feces and urine, inadequate lighting, ceiling collapse, sharps, fire hazards from clutter near space heaters and careless smoking, electrical hazards from overloaded electrical outlets, and excessive noise from very loud televisions.
2. Kitchen/dining room: Trip/slip/lift hazards, biohazards (e.g., spoiled food, pet droppings, overflowing trash, sharps in the trash, soiled surfaces), fire hazards from using the oven for heating and using the stovetop with combustibles nearby, sharp corners on counters and broken chair legs, pests, allergens, unlabeled chemical cleaners, faulty electrical outlets, poor air quality from tobacco smoke, and clutter.
3. Bathroom: Trip/slip/lift hazards, clutter, lack of safety equipment (e.g., grab bars, shower chairs, human and pet waste on surfaces, lack of running water, unsecured shelving and sharp corners, allergens, fire and electrical hazards from space heaters, pests, excessively hot water, and cleaning chemicals.
4. Bedroom: Clutter, biohazards (e.g., human and pet waste, spoiled food, sharps), inadequate lighting, unstable objects, and smoking hazards.

For hazards at the family level, this online article I found from StaySafe.org (https://staysafe.org/safety-at-home-10-common-safety-hazards-around-the-house/) mostly overlapped with the prior article. The only notable differences included:

1. Choking risks to children in the kitchen and bedroom
2. Children accessing sharps in the kitchen
3. Children around kitchen stoves
4. Children around sharps and dishwasher detergent in an open kitchen dishwasher
5. Child suffocation hazards from trash bags (probably mostly in the kitchen) and strings and cords in the bedroom.

I hope that helps!

-Nicholas