By Max Dorfman, Research Writer, Triple-I
Holidays are usually occasions for celebration and family gatherings. But in this pandemic holiday season we remind you to please observe the social distancing rules and advisories in your area.
Triple-I also offers these tips to help make sure everyone is safe and injury-free this holiday season.
Decorations
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there are approximately 200 decorating-related injuries each day during the holiday season, with about half involving falls. During the 2018 holiday season, 17,500 people were treated in emergency rooms due to holiday decorating-related injuries, with six deaths associated with holiday season decorations in 2019.
Our Tips: Choose the correct type of ladder for hanging lights, making sure they are indoor lights for indoors or outdoor lights for outdoors; do not nail, tack, or stress wiring when hanging lights; and keep plugs off the ground and removed from puddles and snow.
Fires
Christmas trees are involved in about 200 home fires per year, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Home Christmas tree fires caused an average of six deaths, 16 injuries*, and $14.8 million in direct property damage annually from 2011 to 2015.
Electrical distribution or lighting equipment was involved in 40 percent of the home Christmas tree structure fires. About 26 percent occurred because some type of heat source was too close to the tree. Decorative lights were involved in 18 percent of these incidents.
Eight percent of home Christmas tree fires were started by candles, which are another major fire hazard. The top three days for home candle fires were Christmas, New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve, according to the NFPA.
However, cooking fires remain the number one cause of residential fires, an average of 1,700 cooking fires occur on Thanksgiving Day each year. Christmas day and Christmas eve are also peak times for cooking related fires.
Our Tips: Do not leave cooking food unattended and keep children away from the cooking area; keep candles at least 12 inches away from anything that can burn; blow them out when you leave the room or go to bed; be careful if someone in the household is using oxygen; and keep candles away from children.
Gift Giving
Although giving toys as presents during this season should be celebrated, there are also risks associated with them. According to a CPSC study from 2019, there were approximately 162,700 toy-related, emergency department-treated injuries and 14 deaths of children under 15 years old, with most related to choking on small parts, like small balls and small toy parts and riding toys.
Our tips: Choose toys in the appropriate age range, with toys with small parts not given to children under three and toys that must be plugged into an electrical outlet not gifted for children under 10; and be aware of toy recalls. Non-motorized scooters in particular are associated with a high rate of accidents, though that has been declining.
Home Care
We also remind you to keep your home heated to at least 65 degrees, let hot and cold faucets drip to prevent freezing and to keep your fireplace flue closed when it is not being used.
*These do not include firefighter deaths and injuries which are recorded separately by the NFPA.