Daily HealthBeat Tip

Safer homes, safer kids

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A child�s home should be a safe place. But too often, it�s not. More than 2,800 children and teenagers die each year from home injuries that could have been prevented. And researcher Kieran Phelan of Cincinnati Children�s Hospital Medical Center says these preventable cases amount to a leading cause of death for children and teens.

"The leading causes of death are shown in our results to be fires, poisonings, submersions and suffocations." (seven seconds)

Phelan says the death rate was highest among preschoolers. His comprehensive analysis in the journal Pediatrics is based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which supported his work.

Phelan says prevention steps are simple � things like smoke and carbon monoxide monitors, latches on cabinets containing household chemicals and medicine, electrical socket covers, and temperature regulation in water heaters to prevent scaldings.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 3, 2005

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