Kitchen
The kitchen is where little hands meet hot pots, low cabinets, and colorful bottles. Most kitchen injuries trace back to the same handful of setups — and every one has a fix you can do this weekend.
The 5-minute fixes
- Keep detergent containers closed, sealed and stored up high, out of sight and reach — that is America's Poison Centers' own advice, and a child-lock on the under-sink cabinet backs it up. Detergent Pods & Cleaning Products
- Anti-tip brackets have been required on new ranges since 1991, but CPSC notes they need a special installation that homeowners and installers sometimes skip. Freestanding Range Tip-Over
- Look at what sits at toddler height in the kitchen: tape or screw shut any battery compartment that opens by hand, keep spare batteries locked up, and move small magnets above reach (CPSC's magnets page: "Magnets go in easier than they come out. Button Batteries & Magnets at Toddler Height
Start here
As of March 31, 2024, poison centers had managed 2,240 laundry-detergent-packet exposures in children 5 and younger
National Poison Data System, America's Poison Centers (Poison Help, "Laundry Pod Safety – Detergent Packets"), cases managed as of March 31, 2024.
CPSC staff knew of 38 range-tipover deaths from 1980 through 2008; 20 of them (53%) were children aged 1 to 5
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (incl. SaferProducts.gov), 2011
From 2011 through 2021 CPSC counted 27 deaths and an estimated 54,300 emergency-room-treated injuries tied to swallowed or inserted button and coin batteries
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (incl. SaferProducts.gov), 2023
Next up
A hot coffee or pot of soup within reach of the counter edge; pot handles pointing out; a baby on your hip while you carry anything hot; a tablecloth or appliance cord a child can pull.
After the child-resistant lighter rule took effect in 1994, deaths from children playing with lighters fell 43% — from 230 in 1994 to 130 in 1998
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (incl. SaferProducts.gov), 2000
CPSC (2019 release) counted an estimated 18,500 high-chair injuries treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments over a two-year period
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (incl. SaferProducts.gov), 2019
When you have a minute
A nonstick pan that is scratched, pitted or flaking; an empty pan left to preheat on high.
EPA: in homes with gas stoves, kerosene heaters or un-vented gas space heaters, indoor nitrogen dioxide levels often exceed outdoor levels
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2026
Air in this room
What can end up in the air here, from fumes and off-gassing to combustion gases.
Read more about air
Shop safer for this room
Our reviewed picks for the products that live here. Each one links to its category page, not to a store.