"Remember...a happy home is a healthy home."
— Bob Villa

HUD's Healthy Home Initiative Designed To Prevent Injuries, Save Lives

Gifts wrapped in glitter reflecting the Christmas lights. A bustling kitchen with the kids scurrying under foot. The hearth all aglow with a crackling fire.

What sounds like traditional holiday trappings common to most homes this time of year, could also spell disaster.

Home hazards kill or injure some 2.5 million American children every year and it's not surprising the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has chosen the season of mirth to announce its new " Healthy Homes for Healthy Children" program.

Making the home safe is a year round responsibility, but the year-end holiday season can be especially distracting and cause many home owners to let down their guard and forget the diligence necessary to maintain household safety.

"Our message is HUD not only wants to help you buy and keep a home, we want to make your home healthy and safe for your children," said Andrew Cuomo, HUD secretary.

The program, offered by a coalition of government and trade groups, is determined to heighten awareness and prevent a host of household conditions that cause scores of deaths and injuries each year.

• Residential fires injure 12,000 children each year.
• Poison control centers have responded to 1 million calls about children under the age of 5 since 1990.
• Each year, more than 3,000 children, 14 or younger, are treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Each year, more than 3,000 children, 10 or younger, are treated for injuries related to inserting objects into electrical outlets.
• Others are injured by asthma, cribs, swimming pools, falls from windows, lead paint and other household hazards.

"If this announcement saves the life of one child or prevents one serious injury, it could be the most important message parents ever see on television," said Edward O. Fritts, president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters.

To supplement HUD's advertising campaign, the association is featuring Bob Vila, host of the television show "Home Again" and Tim Allen of ABC-TV's "Home Improvement" in separate HUD commercials to spread the word about home safety. Along with HUD, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the American Lung Association, National Association of Home Builders, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, Institute for Business and Home Safety, Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environment Protection Agency, among other groups, will distribute the "Danger in the Home" home safety check-up brochure.

"We are pleased...to make parents aware of the simple things that will ensure safety in the home and a healthy environment in which to grow," said Donald Martin, NAHB president.

The brochure lists 37 simple and useful tips for parents that can make heir homes safer for children and lists hot lines for additional home safety ideas.

The safety tips cover precautionary moves such as testing homes built before 1978 for lead paint; using safety gates to keep young children from falling down stairs; making sure that furnaces, fireplaces, wood-burning stoves, space heaters and gas appliances are vented properly to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning; placing non-slip backing on area rugs to prevent falls; testing homes for radon; keeping appliance cords unplugged and tied up; turning pot handles to the back of the stove to prevent children from knocking down hot food that could burn them and others.

Encouraging HUD-assisted housing to incorporate Healthy Home principles, HUD is also granting preference points in grant considerations to groups that build or rehabilitate housing that is safe for kids.

HUD is also inspecting public housing to ensure it meets the program's standards to protect the 3 million people living in public housing.

"Our children need our protection. for them, reducing home hazards is quite literally a matter of life and death," Cuomo said.

Is your home a healthy home for kids?

Let Vila take you on a room-by-room check at HUD's " Danger in the Home" to find out.

Call HUD's toll-free hotline for a hard copy at 1-800-HUDS-FHA.

Published: December 24, 1998

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