If you don’t like government regulations on businesses, how do you feel about government regulations on your home? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency regulations have often been onerous and costly for businesses, but they have improved safety in both workplaces and homes.

We already have a number of regulations, more than we may realize. Some seem silly or bothersome, but many are in place to protect us, and our families, from safety hazards in our own homes. 

More accidents happen in our homes than anywhere else, so even though we usually want government to stay out of our personal home life, its regulations can help us in positive ways. A study by the National Safety Council found that a fatal injury happens in the home about every 14 minutes, and that millions of disabling injuries occur each year in the United States.

If you are a renter, some of the regulations that bedevil owners may save your life or the life of a family member. For example, federal EPA restrictions ban the use of lead paint products in homes, because lead exposure can cause brain damage, comas, and even death. Also, some construction materials cause health-related problems like in some chemically treated wallboard panels, which cannot receive government approval for use in new building construction or remodeling homes. 

A number of products you or your contractors use to fix your property also have to be approved by the government. Many tools with safety switches, gloves, safety eye glasses, and even labor harness devices that roofers wear to prevent falling off roof tops, are covered by government standards.

Poisonings, falls and suffocation are the leading causes of injuries and deaths in the home. To minimize poisonings, regulations mandate safety caps on many bottled contents, and warning signs on packages.

Trips and slips are harder to control. The number of serious falls will probably increase annually, because most of these falls happen to people who are over the age of 65, and that group is growing. Remember that commercial, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up?”

Suffocation results from ingesting something that cuts off adequate air or from fires and smoke. As a preventive measure, local codes often require rental properties and newly constructed homes to have smoke alarms.

Various levels of government also regulate the quality of drinking water, and the EPA sets standards for hazardous air pollutants, which makes air safer for breathing in your home.

Workers with specific installation skills pay for city licenses to replace home equipment like toilets, sinks, bathtubs and showers. Licenses could also allow them to install windows, doors, kitchen equipment, electrical, heating and air conditioning systems or just general repair work to the premises.

So before you complain about all the regulations (which this column often does), why not acknowledge the benefits gained, too? The regulations provide help in minimizing potentially deadly home accidents. The rest of the research efforts must come from you.

How can you eliminate safety hazards in your home? They are easy to overlook, yet often easy to fix. Thinking about this made me walk around my own home, and start noting the things I needed to do.

There were shoes, paper clutter and electrical cords in my path of travel from one room to another. There were wet spots on the bathroom floor, and in the kitchen, enough grease on the floor to make me slip. An older step ladder, with a rubber cap missing from one of the legs, was an accident waiting to happen.

You can make your home safer by identifying potential safety hazards. Keep hallways and stairways free of papers and boxes, and have light switches at each end. Get electrical wires and extension cords from lamps or telephones off the floors to prevent your feet from getting caught in them. Replace rugs and runners that are worn or bent out of shape, in order to prevent tripping and falling down. Use a rubber bathmat and grab bar in the bath and shower areas to prevent falls. Install a nightlight near your bed and in the bathroom.

Put emergency phone numbers by every phone. Finally, create an exit plan, so you know how to get out of each room in case of an emergency.

— Bernard Featherman is a business columnist for the Journal Tribune and former president of the Biddeford-Saco Chamber of Commerce.