The Most Dangerous Room in the Home
More people are injured and die in their bathrooms than any other part of a house
When I read that Charlie Colin, the famous bass guitar player of the popular 90s pop-rock band Train, died at age 58 after slipping and falling in the shower, I thought about the hazards in our homes. Turns out, bathrooms are pretty dangerous, and none of us are immune to the lurking perils.
We spend a lot of time in our bathrooms. In fact, most Americans average 813.3 days in the bathroom over our lives — a little over two years. If you are a bathroom book reader or phone user (or pregnant,) insert more time.
A nine-minute daily shower equals 195.7 accrued days; those 5–7 trips to the loo, clocking in at 14 minutes daily, equals about 309 days. The daily rate of four minutes for brushing teeth equals 824 lifetime days. And it all adds up.
Yet the bathroom is one of the most dangerous places in the house, second only to the kitchen, according to the CDC. Up to 80% of home falls happen in the bathroom. And a bathroom fall is more than twice as likely to result in an injury compared to topples in other rooms, studies show. In turn, falls are the №1 cause of accidental injury death among older adults. By that measure, the bathroom is the most dangerous room in your home.
