TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Six-month follow-up of lithium-battery smoke alarms and self-reported reasons for disabling
JO  - Injury prevention
A1  - Omaki, Elise
A1  - Shields, Wendy C.
A1  - Frattaroli, Shannon
A1  - McDonald, Eileen M.
A1  - Jones, Vanya
A1  - Gielen, Andrea Carlson
SP  - 67
EP  - 69
VL  - 23
IS  - 1
N2  - Although smoke alarms with lithium batteries are often marketed as '10-year alarms', on average, these alarms do not remain functional for 10 years. This paper describes self-reported reasons for non-working lithium-battery alarms 6-9 months following a smoke alarm installation programme. Data presented are for a cohort of 754 homes that participated in the installation programme and subsequently completed follow-up. A total of 1487 smoke alarms were installed. At follow-up, 126 alarms (8%) were missing and 37 (3%) were observed to be non-working. Of the non-working alarms, residents reported that they had been disabled 57% of the time. Reasons for disabling the alarms most often included that the battery was chirping (38%) or that it sounded while someone was cooking (24%). Smoke alarm installation programmes using lithium-battery alarms should consider highlighting education about smoke alarm maintenance, the hush feature and resources to replace alarms that malfunction soon after installation.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1353-8047
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2015-041870
ID  - ref1
ER  -