Home Safety
Child Tamper-Resistant Cabinet Locks
According to the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC):
- There were 97 reported deaths from accidental poisonings of children ages 1 through 4 in the United States from 1999 through 2001.1
- The NCIPC estimates there were over 160,000 accidental poisoning injuries of children ages 1 through 4 in the United States from 2001 through 2002.2
Some of these deaths and injuries may have been prevented if the poisons had been kept out of the child's reach.
The best way to protect your children from accidental poisoning is to make sure all medicines, cleaning supplies, and other chemicals are kept out of reach in a locked cabinet. This is not always practical with cleaning supplies that may be used many times a day. In these situations, child tamper-resistant cabinet locks provide some protection. However, there is no product on the market that is foolproof or that will replace constant supervision of a young child.
Knives, poisons, and caustic chemicals need to be kept out of children's hands, but convenient for the parents to use. The use of "add-on" plastic catches may provide additional security. These latches are attached to the cabinet door or drawer and restrict the opening of the drawers/doors to a few inches or less until the plastic catch is pressed releasing the door/drawer. This may initially keep a toddler out of the drawer or cabinet. However, at some point many toddlers figure out how to press the catch and get into the cabinet or drawer. To help delay this awareness stage, never let your child see how you open a child resistant lock.
The cabinet locks installed in the Disaster Survival House are another alternative to the plastic "add-ons". This "add-on" latch uses the concept of requiring a "magnetic" key to open the latch. The "magnetic" key can be kept out of children's reach and the latch can be disengaged so it opens without the use of the key. While there are no current test results available on these latches for effectiveness at keeping children out of a cabinet/drawer, it provides an alternative to the plastic catches.
Make sure you haven't overlooked the following places where potentially dangerous items might be stored:
- Garage
- Laundry room
- Kitchen
- Bathrooms
As an added precaution, make sure any drawers directly behind a bathroom door have cabinet latches as well even if there isn't anything dangerous in the drawers. Young children can crawl into a bathroom, shut the door, and open the drawers behind the door. This may block your ability to get the door open so you can get the child out of the room.
If your child is exhibiting life threatening symptoms (collapsed, stopped breathing or having seizures) call 911 immediately. If you suspect your child has possibly ingested, touched or breathed a poisonous substance, but not exhibiting life threatening symptoms, immediately contact a Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222. This 800 number will put you in touch with one of several regional Poison Control Centers located across the United States. A medical professional will provide direction as to what you should do.
