Children endangered by guns, household cleaners

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), April, 2005

Many U.S. residents who have younger children are negligent in storing guns and poisonous materials, but those whose homes youngsters only visit are significantly worse, according to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Injury Prevention Research Center, which showed that, in 55% of residences where young children live, household chemicals are stored in places accessible to them. Such compounds are not secured in 74% of homes where kids visit, says Tamera Coyne-Beasley, associate professor of pediatrics and medicine.

Meanwhile, one-third of gun owners with children under six keep a firearm unlocked at home, whereas guns are not secured in 56% of residences where kids visit. The overall odds of reported unlocked storage of guns and household poisonous chemicals are two-and-a-half times higher in residences where young children visit than in their own homes.

In a recent 12-month period, 233 unintentional firearm injuries and 93,703 poisonings occurred among children under age six.

"People need to be much more careful in keeping potentially lethal compounds and firearms safely secured," Coyne-Beasley cautions. "Every year, preventable tragedies happen because people forget how children like to explore and get into things and how vulnerable they are to accidents."

Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death for kids ages one to nine in this country. About one-quarter of U.S. children seek medical attention for injuries every year. Approximately one-third of American residences contain guns.

"The total firearm-related injury death rate for youth here is 16 times higher than the rate for other industrialized nations, and the unintentional gun-related death rate is nine times higher," Coyne-Beasley indicates.

"Clearly, strategies are needed to improve the storage practices of both poisons and firearms to minimize in-home hazards to young children and to eliminate the barriers to safe storage. Parents need to investigate the safety practices in the homes where their children visit whether other children live there or not. Among these are the homes of grandparents, babysitters, and friends."