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Home SafetyCarbon Monoxide Poisoning: Be alert to signs of carbon monoxide poisoning: headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, nausea and dizziness. Because the symptoms are similar to other illnesses, such as the flu, The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that each household have (in addition to smoke detectors on each level) a carbon monoxide detector on each level. Low-level exposure to carbon monoxide over a long period of time can be just as harmful as high concentrations over a short period of time -- particularly to infants and children. Other common indoor pollutants: lead, asbestos, toxic art supplies, fungus and mold, dust, formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds. See Safer Child Pollution (Indoor) Page. Also be alert to signs that your child is suffering from exposure to common household products such as carpet cleaners, bug sprays, lawn and garden chemicals, hair spray, perfume, cleaners or disinfectants. Every year, for example, children suffer potentially dangerous reactions to carpet cleaning products. Swimming Pools, Hot Tubs and Spas: If you have a swimming pool at home, consider building a fence around it with a locked gate. Have a ladder up the side of the pool, and always leave a safety ring in the water. Pool covers might not be enough to prevent a tragedy; in fact they might trap a small child who falls in. If possible, have a phone in the pool area, with emergency numbers attached. Additionally, spas and hot tubs are dangerous for young children who can drown or become overheated in them. Don't allow your young children to use spas or hot tubs. Bath Seats: Do NOT depend on bath seats to protect your child from drowning in a bathtub -- not even for a moment. Not even if your child is able to sit up alone or crawl. Bath seats lack safety standards, and they can easily tip over or allow your child to slide out. The seats have been linked to more than 80 deaths of infants over two decades. Use them if they help you hang on to your child in the bathtub, but don't ever depend on a seat to protect your child from drowning. Safety standards are being developed but will not be applicable until at least the fall of 2003, and even then, not on older seats. See our Water Safety page for more water safety tips. Window Coverings: October is National Window Covering Safety Month. Please take time to check the window coverings in rooms in which your child sleeps and plays (at home, at school, at daycare, at church, and at friends' houses). There are many ways in which a child can become entangled in the cords or blinds of window coverings. Many children die each year from being strangled by window coverings. There are things you can do to protect your child. For more information, see the Window Covering Safety Council. You also can visit advocacy group Parents for Window Blind Safety. Treadmills and other exercise equipment: Many children have been injured by getting their fingers caught in a treadmill or other piece of equipment, by being hit with it, by falling onto it or having it fall on them, or by getting a piece of clothing stuck in it. Injuries caused by sports equipment can be severe because such equipment is typically heavy, sharp, awkward, or complicated -- and motorized belts don't necessarily stop when a child is caught. When you're using exercise equipment, make sure you know where your children are and that they aren't in danger of coming up behind you. Always use all safety features that make them harder to start and easier to stop when there's a problem. When you aren't using the equipment, make sure it's locked up, unplugged or otherwise disabled. Never let young children use treadmills or other mechanized sports equipment, and don't let older children use them without supervision.
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