Injury toll in US homes tops 12 million yearly: UNC, other experts call for action

"Unintentional injuries at home have become a major public health problem across the country, according to a series of new Home Safety Council-funded studies conducted at the University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center.

'Between 1992 and 1999, we found that an average of 18,048 unintentional home injury deaths occurred annually in the United States,' said Dr. Carol W. Runyan, director of the center and professor of health behavior and health education and pediatrics at UNC schools of public health and medicine. 'In addition, for 1998 alone, more than 12 million nonfatal unintentional injuries that required medical attention occurred at home.'

Falls, poisoning and burn injuries were the leading causes of such deaths at home, she said.