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4 on your sideSafety Gear For Your HomeBy Vince VitranoAbout 21 million people need medical attention every year because of accidents at home. But if clunky safety equipment such as fire extinguishers and metal grab bars don't suit your idea of home décor...fear not! There are other options out there. Stacey Sevinor likes everything in her home to look nice. "I like a beautiful home, but I like a comfortable home," Stacey says. 'Comfort' means more to Stacey than cozy furniture. "Home safety is very, very important to me," she says. A growing number of home health and safety products are getting makeovers. From streamlined fire extinguishers...to keyless doorknobs...to humidifiers that look like works of art. It turns out there's a real demand for pretty home safety decor says Meri-K Appy, president of the Home Safety Council. "I would call it the next phase in safety," Appy says. The products fall into a few basic categories: Security, such as biometric or keyless doorknobs, and peepholes concealed in door-knockers; and Health and Comfort, like the home humidifiers that look like sculptures. "Many of these products look just the same as a product without the safety feature, or even better. They are smaller…sometimes you can't see them at all," Appy says. They're also safer, such as restyled night lights and streamlined fire extinguishers. "Ten years ago, people would say, I don't want my home to look like a nursing home. Nowadays you can get grab bars designed to go with your décor," Appy explains. It's critical that designer products work as well as traditional safety items. About 20,000 people die in home injuries each year, so make sure 'pretty products' are designed with your well-being first in mind. "The best thing to do when you're selecting a safety product is to look for the label of an independent testing laboratory. Underwriters Laboratory is one, or UL," Appy says. Then--let your design sense rule the day! "It's nice to have something that is of safety and security and doesn't look like it's safety and security," Stacey admits. Experts say any trend that increases the likelihood that consumers will keep safety products handy is a good one. |
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