title: Six-month follow-up of lithium-battery smoke alarms and self-reported reasons for disabling.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Elise
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Omaki
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Wendy C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Shields
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frattaroli
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Vanya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gielen
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000295:instrumentation*; D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000328:Adult; D004867:Equipment Design; D004868:Equipment Failure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D005390:Fires / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008094:Lithium; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057566:Self Report; D012906:Smoke / Q000032:analysis*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D012906:Smoke; D008094:Lithium