Poor housing a risk for serious injury

Clueless Rotorua residents keen to undertake their own home maintenance risk serious injury or death if electrical work is botched, a local electrician says.

Jonathan Hale of Hale Electrical Services said the electrical wiring systems in some Rotorua homes made properties unsafe.

"If people touch them they could potentially get a shock."

His comments follow new research from Otago University which found many home injuries were related to poor housing structure and maintenance.

According to ACC nearly 800,000 active injury claims related to home accidents in the 12 months to June. This amounted to nearly $600 million in payouts.

Around 36,500 were from the wider Bay of Plenty region, costing more than $27.5 million.

However, previous research showed the total social cost of death and injuries in the home was $13 billion in 2007. In contrast, road injuries and deaths amounted to nearly $4 billion.

Social costs include loss of output due to injury or death, reduced quality of life and medical expenses.

Mr Hale advised residents against performing their own electrical work if they were unfamiliar with safety protocols.

"You see some really strange, peculiar and dangerous ways that people wire things."

For example, incorrect cable sizes could result in cable splits. Anyone who touched these risked electrocution, he said.

Electrical work in older Rotorua homes, built in the 1950s and 1960s, also needed special attention.

These homes did not have an earth wire which means all metal light fittings were live.

The Otago University research, which involved about 1600 participants who were injured at home, assessed participants' properties for structural hazards. A number of houses in the Taranaki area, which lacked insulation, were also assessed.

Findings showed nearly two-thirds of homes lacked working smoke alarms and over half had unfinished driveway fences. Forty-nine per cent of homes had unsafe hot water temperatures (over 60C) and a third had poorly lit access.

Lead author Michael Keall believed the results were "relatively typical" of many New Zealand homes.

Nearly 40 per cent of injuries were related to a home's structural aspect, the findings showed.

Fixing dangerous structural hazards would cost an average of about $600 per household, he said.

"This expenditure is justified in terms of increased safety."

Outdoor areas were particularly important, with 37 per cent of accidents occurring on home paths, steps and in the garden.

Those aged under 5 years and the elderly were most vulnerable.

Fixing these hazards was crucial to improving home safety, Mr Keall said.

Safety at home:

• 
  Install hand rails for steps, inside and outside
• 
  Put high visibility slip-resistant edgings on steps
• 
  Install lighting for outdoor areas
• 
  Put slip-resistant surfacing on decks and steps to prevent falls
• 
  Regularly check smoke alarms.

Source: Dr Michael Keall