The back yard is the haven of summer. Carefree days of grilling, swimming, playing, gardening.
What could go wrong? Plenty.
Home is where the hurt is. Especially now.
“Summer is trauma season,” says Dr. Angela Mickalide, director of education and outreach for the Home Safety Council, a national non-profit based in Washington. “Between May and August there are a disproportionate number of deaths and injuries in this country.”
Every year, an average of 20,000 people die from an injury sustained at home; 21 million are injured badly enough to require medical attention, according to the council. One in three of these deaths are due to falls; one in four deaths are from poisoning; and one in five are from burns.
“Many of these injuries are preventable–through common sense, through supervision and through the use of safety devices,” Mickalide says.
Yet, many of us feel we are out of harm when home.
“We found that nine out of 10 parents said their home was where they felt safest; there seems to be a false sense of security,” Mickalide says.
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Here’s a look at some back-yard hazards.
– Splash safely: Among all unintentional injuries, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4, and the No. 2 cause of death for children ages 14 and under, according to the non-profit organization Safe Kids Worldwide. For every child who dies from drowning, four more are hurt in near-drowning incidents that require hospitalization. Many sustain brain damage, which can occur in less than five minutes.
Most child drownings occur at home. According to Safe Kids, more than half take place in the child’s home pool and about a third occur at the homes of friends, neighbors or relatives.
Safety devices are not enough by themselves to keep kids water-safe.
“None of it replaces a good parent,” says Capt. Jim Doucette, spokesman for the Sacramento City Fire Department.
But parents can be sitting poolside, busy chatting and not paying attention to the kids splashing in the pool.
Judy Barrett Miller, executive director of the California Coalition for Children’s Safety and Health, offers a homespun tip for ensuring poolside supervision at gatherings.
Take a bit of yarn, a lanyard or some other object and use it as a water-watcher tag. Adults can take turns holding the tag, with the understanding that when you’re holding it, you’re it, meaning you must do nothing but watch the kids in the pool.
– Follow the grill drill: You can burn a lot more than the shish kebab at your back-yard grill.
“One of our biggest problems is people have the charcoal barbecue underneath an overhang or too close to the house,” Doucette says.
The other flammable aspect of grilling is impatience.
“People get anxious, and they’ll squirt lighter fluid on the coals, or gasoline,” he says. “Gasoline is very explosive; it should never be used to light a barbecue.”
When you’re starting a grill, you should soak the briquettes with fluid designed for that purpose, light them and then wait.
Patience after grilling also is needed.
“Some people are neat freaks, and they want to clean out their barbecue right away,” Doucette says. “You need to wait two or three days.”
Charcoal that isn’t entirely extinguished and tossed into a plastic garbage can burn.
“I’ve been on numerous fires like that. Those big plastic garbage cans are very flammable,” Doucette says.
– Tackle yard work without fumbling: Gardening seems like a safe hobby, but there are dangers beyond weeding fatigue.
“People just don’t think about the safety issues,” says Dr. David Berman, assistant chief of Kaiser Permanente’s Sacramento and Roseville, Calif., emergency departments.
He says two sources of injuries keep him busy in the summer: Heat and tools.
“You go outside, and you don’t drink enough water and stay in the shade,” he says. If you start to have cramps in your arms or legs, or feel faint or nauseated, those can be signs of heat exhaustion, which should be taken seriously. You should get in the shade, cool off and drink water.
On the tool side of the danger equation, Berman sees lots of cuts and burns every summer. The burns often come from accidentally touching hot motors.
Gloves, shoes, safety glasses and reading (and following) the instructions reduce the chances of getting hurt.
– Survive the highs and lows: Falls are the No. 1 cause of death at home, according to the Home Safety Council. Ladders are one tumbling hazard. A simple safeguard: no solo sessions.
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“To climb a ladder is a two-person operation–someone steadying it for the climber on the way up and down,” Doucette says.
Also, before you start digging to put up a new fence, build a deck or plant a tree, find out if there are dangerous underground utilities in your yard. Call your utilities company.