KEY POINTS:
While there's no place quite like it, you are still more likely to maim yourself with power tools, fall off ladders or scald yourself with boiling water while at home than anywhere else.
Figures from the Accident Compensation Corporation show a child dies every two weeks from injuries sustained in the home while one New Zealander suffers some kind of domestic trauma every 44 seconds.
The ACC, which today launches its Safety NZ Week campaign, said about 36,000 people would require hospitalisation from injuries incurred at home and of those 500 would die this year.
Meanwhile, about 22,000 people injured themselves at home last year using some kind of tool. The cost for all of these home injuries in the last financial year: $377 million.
ACC injury prevention general manager, Katie Sadleir, said the figures confirmed injuries in the home were "much more prevalent and serious" than most New Zealanders believed.
Ian Laird, Massey University senior lecturer in occupational therapy, said standards in the workplace tended not to "translate to the home environment" where injuries are five times more likely to occur.
"There is some transfer of hearing protection and res
pirators when mowing or spraying but the uptake in usage is still pretty low compared with the work environment," said Dr Laird.
He said the use of power tools in an "uncontrolled or unpredictable environment" was an "inherent sort of male thing".
"There should be some assessment of what you're going to do and how you're going to do it."
Safe Communities Foundation director Carolyn Coggan said the risks at home were not the same for different age groups. Older people were likely to suffer more trips and falls which are the cause of over half of all moderate to serious home injuries.
Dr Coggan said people doing handyman jobs around the home needed to consider their environment more carefully.
"It means using the equipment right which means not getting on the roof in jandals ... some jobs are too dangerous to do alone," she said.
Ms Sadleir said simple steps like increasing the number of rings on your home phone could reduce the risk of a fall when rushing to pick up a ringing phone.
Other tips include installing non-slip shower and bath mats, wearing non-slip shoes or slippers on wooden floors, and keeping areas such as stairways clear of clutter and well-lit.
Injury statistics:
A New Zealander injures themselves in the home every 44 seconds.
A child dies every two weeks from an injury in the home.
Slips, trips and falls are the cause of over half (55 per cent) of all moderate to serious home injuries.
40 per cent of New Zealand homes have dangerously hot water.
Last year 22,000 people injured themselves at home using some kind of tool.
