Objective To know the safety situation of home environment in retired cadres, and provide references for reducing the accident rates of the elderly at home and construction of barrier-free environment at home.Methods Totally 69 retired cadres who were admitted in one tertiary hospital in shanghai from May 2012 to December 2015 and their hospitalization time was less than 30 days, were investigated with general information questionnaires and observation schedule of home environment. Results The investigation showed that, the potential hazardous factors of the elderly′home were:walking barriers in living room (71.01%);slip rug in living room ( 57. 97%); no emergency alarm in bed room ( 55. 07%); walking barriers in dining aisle (53.62%);improper position of lamp switches in bed room (52.17%);some obstacles in taking oral medicine by themselves ( 50. 72%) and indoor walking barriers ( 44. 93%) . Conclusions There are certain potential hazards in retired cadres′ home. Therefore, the elderly should be trained with the related safety environment program, so to improve the safety environment of their home, enhance their identification abilities to potential hazards at home and strengthen the construction of barrier-free environment at home.