Home Fittings

Examples of product design issues with child safety include:
· Glass
· Stairs
· Entrances & Hallways
· Balustrades
· Water Features

Prevention of glass injury
Many homes built before 1989 do not meet Australian safety standards for glass, exposing families and children to unnecessary risk due to splintering. Even though the standard was introduced in 1989 the changes were not retrospective and there has been little effort to upgrade glass in existing homes.
As many as 1500 Australians are projected each year to suffer glass-related injuries, many of these are preventable.

Stairs
Stairs are a common functional feature that provides access to a space that otherwise could be inaccessible. They allow extension of space and can enhance appearances, but are they safe?
Open tread stairs can provide a child access to fall or become trapped within the riser gap from one stair to the next. Obviously, the higher the child falls the harder the impact. Impacted injuries can cause permanent injuries or be fatal.

Entrances and hallways
Children experience their surroundings differently to adults, and so have difficulty recognising visual and cognitive messages related to hidden dangers within their environments. If a child encounters negative experiences such as injuries when attempting to develop their skills this can cause negative responses to their environment. Ie disrupted sleep patterns

To assist children develop these skills they need to interact within a safe environment with limitations according to the child's age and stage of development, guided by adults. Access into hallways to rooms that could pose possible dangers with out adult supervision, should be made inaccessible at the point of entry.Ie: Hallways, doorways.

Just as with stairs, a safety gate or half door allows for adult supervision of the child while preventing the child access to any hidden dangers. Bathroom, laundries and kitchen areas are good examples of hidden dangers with the storage of poisons and the use of electricity (power points) and water.

Balustrades
Have the balustrades in the home design become a non-specific feature or is it just that their intent has been forgotten?

Balustrades have a significant function in the design of any home stair access. They prevent falls. The building Code Part 3.9.Balustrades was developed using injury data, which was designed to develop a safer balustrade.

Each day in Australia children are injured, hospitalised or die from such common accidents as falls or entrapment. Children's bodies are designed with the common expression "Top Heavy". Their heads grow faster than their bodies.

Children become trapped in areas such as balustrades, where injuries are increased if the vertical gaps between slats are not designed to standards recommendations. Children have been known to slip their body through and their head has become stuck due to its larger size in portion to the child's body.

This kind of entrapment can cause strangulation or broken necks. After evidence based research was explored, standards were introduced to provide safer recommendations, which reduce the frequency of this kind of accident occurring.

Water Features
Most of the community would relate to children drowning each year in back yard pools. To reduce the repeated occurrence the Government passed a law that back yard pools after the 1st August 1990 -(AS 1962-1986) "Fences and Gates for Private Swimming Pools" which requires isolated fencing at a height of 1.2 metres and a self locking gate.

Water features are not only pools they can be fountains, ponds or small bodies of open water etched into the design of the indoor environment. As children are attracted to any body of water as they also enjoy the same sense of the unknown and exploring its discoveries, without the knowledge of its hidden dangers. Water can entice with its reflection of light producing a wavy, ornamental effect against its surroundings.

Water is a very tranquil addition to any home but a child can drown quickly and quietly in as little as 2cm of tranquillity.

Children's bodies are designed with the common expression "top heavy". Their heads grows faster than their bodies. This can present dangers that as adults we have out grown.

Make informed choices about all the possible dangers associated with any water that is assessable to a child.