Bath Safety

I was startled by a recent study I came across that revealed that one of the sorely ignored aspects of safety around the house was bath safety. Come to think of it, it is pretty obvious. I mean you have a substance like water in plenty, slippery tiles galore, lots of fixtures and bath fittings that can give you a knock in all the wrong places and human beings, who are prone to succumb to all these. The result is one of the most probable places for an accident at home. Studies conducted in a cross section of American homes reveal that bath safety or the lack of it thereof is the most prominent cause of accidents at home. And the situation is unlikely to change unless there is a radical change in the way our bathrooms are engineered.

First and foremost, a bathroom needs to be dry in order to promise bath safety. Water, being a lubricant to some degree, removes the friction that characterizes our other walking related activities. Almost all of us, despite the existence of the likes of ‘bathroom slippers’ prefer to go into the bath areas with our naked feet. The result is that there is less traction and more slippage, resulting in nasty falls which can sometimes be fatal.

The next area where there needs to be a re-design is in the fixtures and fitting in the bathrooms. More often than not, these are customized to cater more to the aesthetic than the functional and thus create probable death traps for unsuspecting users. Have you ever noticed how bathroom fitting keep getting more and more ornate? They come in a variety of materials, have sharp edges, and, in the case of some of the more contemporary design houses, come with sleek lines that sure do enthrall, but can also kill! Fixtures are responsible for most of the head injuries. And are a major contributor to the lack of bath safety.

Finally, I am of the firm belief that the tiles are another aspect of the lack of bath safety. I am still to find a tile, porous, natural or even vitrified, that does not succumb to the lubricating properties of plain old water. And make the tiles white or sheer black and you have an additional problem in the shape of not being able to see if there has been any water logging. Surely not something you want to be caught on the wrong foot on!