@article{ref1,
title="It's not the batteries! Smoke alarm presence and functionality 5-7 years post installation of sealed lithium battery alarms",
journal="Journal of burn care and research",
year="2022",
author="Shields, Wendy and Omaki, Elise and Villalba, Joel and Gielen, Andrea",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="Smoke alarms with lithium batteries have been marketed as long life or &quot;10 Year Alarms.&quot; Previous work has drawn into question the actual term of functionality for lithium battery alarms. This paper reports on observed smoke alarm presence and functionality in a sample of 158 homes which had participated in a fire department smoke alarm installation program 5-7 years prior to the observations. A total of 394 alarms were originally installed in the 158 homes that completed the revisit. At the time of the revisit, 214 of those alarms were working (54%), 26 were non-working (7%), and 154 were missing (39%). Of the 158 homes that completed the revisit, n=62 (39%) had all their originally installed project alarms up at working at the revisit. Respondents who reported owning their homes and who reported living in their home for 6 or more years were significantly more likely than renters and those living in their homes for 5 or fewer years were more likely to maintain all of their project alarms. Smoke alarm installation programs should consider revisiting homes within 5-7 years post installation to inspect and replace any missing or non-functioning alarms. We recommend programs conducting community risk reduction programs track and plan installations and revisits to improve smoke alarm coverage.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1559-047X",
doi="10.1093/jbcr/irab249",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jbcr/irab249"
}