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• List all the drugs you are currently taking, and ask your doctor or pharmacist if they can interact when taken together. (Try to use just one pharmacy.)

• Tell your doctor right away about any unwanted side effects.

• Keep medications in a cool, dry place (preferably not in the bathroom medicine cabinet).

• Keep medicines in their original container. (Prescription bottles reduce the amount of light, which can affect some medications.) If you’re using a pill organizer, ask your doctor if it’s OK to mix the drugs inside the compartments. (When mixed together, some pills interact chemically.)

• Tightly close lids, use child-resistant caps if children live in or visit the home, and keep medications away from children.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas, is the most common cause of death from poisoning in the United States, killing almost 300 people each year. Carbon monoxide is produced when a fuel burns incompletely, and it can easily escape from a defective or improperly vented home heating system. Inhaling carbon monoxide can cause flulike symptoms such as headache, dizziness, nausea, and light-headedness. These early symptoms can quickly progress to seizures, unconsciousness, and death. Entire families have died during the night from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by faulty heating systems.

The following measures can help prevent carbon monoxide poisoning in your home:

• Have new furnaces and gas appliances (such as water heaters) installed professionally.

• Have your furnace inspected and cleaned every year.

• Install a carbon monoxide detector on each floor of your home, including the basement.

• Check the carbon monoxide detector once a month, and replace the batteries at least once a year.

• Make sure all space heaters are properly vented.

• Never use gas or charcoal grills or kerosene lamps indoors.

• Camping equipment (such as portable heaters, lanterns, and stoves) can also emit carbon monoxide. Never use them indoors or while sleeping in a tent or camper.

• Don’t run your car in a closed garage, because vehicle exhaust contains carbon monoxide.

If your carbon monoxide detector alarm goes off, call the fire department immediately (even if you think it may only be a low battery) and evacuate your family from your home until the fire department gives you permission to go back inside.

Gun Safety

Half of all homes in the United States contain a firearm. But the risk to the people in the home, especially to children, far outweighs any security benefits—most shooting victims are family members or friends, not intruders. A person living in a home with a gun is 18 times more likely to be killed by the gun than is a stranger. The risk is higher if the home environment includes a person who is violent or verbally abusive, abuses alcohol or drugs, or is depressed. Each year, nearly 6,000 Americans under age 20 die of gun-related injuries, including unintentional injury, homicide, or suicide. For each child killed by a gun, four others are wounded, many so badly that they become permanently disabled.

To protect your family from gun-related injury, don’t keep a gun in your home. If you are concerned about protection, take other steps to protect your home and family—buy a home security system, put reinforced bars on your windows and dead-bolt locks on your doors, add outdoor lighting, and start a neighborhood watch program.

Many unintentional injuries occur because a curious child or adolescent plays with or handles an improperly stored gun. If you feel the need to keep a gun in your home for security purposes, or if you keep one or more for hunting, lower your family’s risk of injury and death by storing it unloaded (with a gun lock in place) in a locked cabinet or drawer. Make the key available only to responsible adults. Don’t tell your child where the gun is stored, because he or she may be tempted to show it off to friends. Keep the ammunition in a separate locked cabinet.

Teach your children never to