Household Product Injuries: Spray Cleaners Top the List

In recent decades we have seen a drastic increase about the awareness of potential dangers household cleaners pose to children. With all of this increased awareness and the increased prevalence of child locks for cabinets and other safety devices the number of reported injuries related to household cleaners has nearly been cut in half, (down to 12,00 from 22,000)

While this is great progress and there is one area that has not seen such a positive trend over – spray bottles. Researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy have found that some 40 percent of household cleaner injuries that are treated in emergency rooms involve spray bottles. More importantly researchers found that while injuries involving all other types of containers dramatically fell, “spray-bottle injury rates showed no decrease.”

Maybe some of the reason is that more things come in spray bottles today but the fact there is really no child-resistant locking mechanism on most spray bottle is probably the greatest reason why we have not seen a decrease in spray bottle injuries.

Choosing child-proof and child-resistant products whenever they are available is always a good idea for homes with children. Parents should always do what they can to keep all household cleaners out of the reach of children, but paying a little special attention to products in spray bottles will make your home even safer.