Bathroom safety becomes priority

Home Channel News, Sept 1, 1999 by Monica Toriello

From grab bars to shower heads, demand is increasing for products that help prevent accidents

Anything can happen in the bathroom People can slip an fall on wet surfaces be scalded by hot water, get electrocuted from appliances, drown in the tub or accidentally poison themselves with chemicals. There are nearly 200,000 bathroom accidents per year That's 70 percent of all home accidents, according to research from home care products company Aurora in North Ridgeville, Ohio.

And although these accidents don't just happen to elderly people, the graying of America is a sure boon to the bath safety category. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there were 34 million people over the age of 65 in 1997, and that will double to nearly 70 million by 2030.

The numbers mean big business for companies like Aurora, which sells bath safety products through catalogs and retailers like Sears Hardware, Wal-Mart and Eagle Hardware & Garden. Dearborn Brass a plumbing manufacturer based in Tyler, Texas, recognized the trend and entered the bath safety business with its July launch of a stainless steel line of grab bars. Product manager Paul Woolfork said that America's aging population and increasing insistence on ADA-compliance convinced Dearborn that bath safety is a growth market.

It's also a high-margin category for retailers. Dealers report that customers for these types of products are buying out of necessity; nobody price-shops for a shower chair.

"Sometimes they're shocked at the prices of these things, but they need them so they buy them anyway," said Dan Boot, plumbing manager for Gemmen's, a single-unit dealer in Hudsonville, Mich., that has a four-foot display of Franklin Brass's Safety First line of products. Boot observed that the purchasers of bath safety products are either elderly people, the grown-up children of elderly people or relatives of convalescing patients.

Safety First has been Franklin Brass's fastest-growing product line since it was introduced about five years ago, said the company's vp-sales Sidney Mandell. The series has grown to about 30 skus at retail, including grab bars, tub rails, transfer benches and shower chairs. Franklin Brass unveiled its latest addition to the Safety First line at the recently held Hardware Show -- a hinged elevated toilet seat that retails at approximately $29 and will be in stores this month.

But bath safety is still largely "a grab bar business according to Jim Collins, buyer for Winter Haven, Fla.-based Scotty's, which also has a four-foot display of safety products in its bath hardware department. That isn't surprising considering that according to emergency room statistics, falls account for nearly one-quarter of all injury-related emergency room visits.

"We used to make 20,000 grab bars a year," maintained Mandell. 'Now we're making 100,000 a month." Grab bars are also gaining acceptance among homeowners as more decor-oriented options are introduced. Safety First currently offers seven custom colors, including bone, rose and baby blue.

A shower of one's own

But falling isn't the only kind of accident that can happen in the bathroom, and grab bars aren't the be-all and end-all of bath safety. Bath manufacturers including Kohler, Grohe, Ondine Interbath, Barand and Speakman have been sensitive to another common bathroom accident: scalding. Those companies have all introduced anti-scald valves over the last two years.

One particular company is looking out for younger shower-takers. Idea Factory, a Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based supplier, has launched My Own Shower - a shower system for children, with a built-in anti-scalding device.

My Own Shower consists of a three-foot hose with a plastic frog-shaped shower head at the end of it, which sticks to the bathroom wall via a suction cup. The hose attaches to a special valve - also made by Idea Factory that installs permanently on the regular shower unit and can divert water from the adult shower head to the frog shower head, giving children a smaller and gentler spray that's just their height. (Kids who don't like frogs will have to wait until next year for their own shower. Other designs, including a flower and a blowfish, are currently in the works.)

"There comes a time when children want to be a 'big kid' and take showers," said Patty Mueller, CEO of Idea Factory. "They're faced with the adult showers that are too high and spray too hard." My Own Shower addresses these problems, and includes an important safety feature as well. "Nearly two-thirds of burn injuries to toddlers are tap water scald burns, most often occurring in the bathroom," explained Mueller. The anti-scald protection device within the frog shower head senses when the temperature of the water exceeds 112 degrees Fahrenheit, and immediately reduces water flow to a trickle. Normal flow resumes only when the water temperature is safe again. When the little one is all clean, the hose can be detached and the adult shower head operates as usual.

My Own Shower is made in the United States and is currently available for about $29.95 through several Ace Hardware and TruServ dealers. It is also sold at Target, Linens 'n Things and select Bed Bath & Beyond outlets.