Avoidable home accidents

There's no place like home, especially when it comes to accidents. Avoidable accidents land people in the country's emergency rooms year after year.

Dr. Tim Rutledge, director of Emergency Services at North York General Hospital in Toronto, joined Balance Television host Dr. Marla Shapiro with tips to avoid unnecessary household mishaps.

Childhood ingestions

At a young age, as children explore their universe, they like to grab things that look good and tasty and swallow them, Rutlege said. Pills, button batteries and other small dangerous objects definitely need to be kept out of the reach of children, he said.

Household cleansers

Besides being locked up, you can have dangerous gases produced by mixing chemicals. "The key message here is not to mix cleansers to try and concoct your own super-cleanser," Rutledge said.

For example, mixing chlorine-containing bleaches with acid-containing cleansers can produce a chlorine gas that can cause significant sickness and even death. Rutledge would recommend using two products such as those mentioned on separate days, but failing that, be sure that you rinse the first cleanser off very thouroughly with water and make sure the area where you're working is properly ventilated.