Household safety

Here are some important guidelines to keep your family safe.

Kitchen and bathroom

• Keep items away from the bathtub, sink and toilet.
• Anything that plugs into an electrical outlet should be kept away from a water source. Water conducts electricity and can cause electrocution.
• Make sure outlets in the bathroom and kitchen are updated with ground fault circuit interrupters, which turn off electricity if appliances fall into water.

Keep work and play safe with these simple guidelines.

Playing safely

Pools and hot tubs

• Never leave your child unattended in or near a swimming pool, hot tub or spa.
• Make sure pools/tubs have effective barriers (like a fence or gate) to help guard against unauthorized access. This is also a legal requirement in many areas; check with your city or homeowner's association for more information.
• Don't allow barriers, such as fences or walls, to give you a false sense of security regarding your child's safety; there's no substitute for adult supervision.
• Fence gates should have self-closing, self-latching mechanisms. Latches need to be out of reach of young children.
• Lock all doors and windows leading to the pool areas.
• Keep toys, tricycles and other children's play things away from the pool or spa.
• Mount life-saving devices near the pool.
• Keep tables, chairs and ladders away from pool fences and gates.
• Check placement of doggie doors to ensure there's no direct access to the pool area.
• Post clear CPR instructions and your local emergency number in a visible place near the pool in case of an emergency. Installing a phone in the pool area or keeping a cordless phone nearby is also a good idea.
• Learn CPR. Check with your local Red Cross for available classes.

​General work safety

• Learn where the utility lines are and keep your equipment outside the limits of approach.
• Before you dig, call 811 to mark any underground utilities in the area and practice safe digging in these areas.
• Make sure you have a backflow device on your outdoor hose tap to prevent contaminants from getting back into your home water supply.