Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

Young children are naturally curious, playful, and eager to pull themselves up onto anything that offers them a chance to stand upright. Too often, however, heavy pieces of furniture, appliances, television sets, and other heavy objects tumble down onto young ones, causing serious injury and in some cases death. To help lessen the number of household accidents, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a statement yesterday urging parents to safeguard their homes against these potential tragedies.

The CPSC estimates that 16,300 children age 5 and younger received treatment in emergency rooms for injuries caused by TV, furniture, and appliance tip-overs in 2006 alone. 134 tip-over related deaths were reported to the CPSC between 2000 and 2006, and the agency “is aware of at least 30 media reports of tip-over deaths since January 2007 involving this same age group.”

Children are frequently injured or killed when they attempt to pull themselves up, climb onto, or fall against objects such as television stands, bookshelves, dressers, desks, chests, and appliances. Televisions sitting on top of furniture often tip over, resulting in sometimes fatal injuries, the CPSC reported.

“The most devastating injuries that we see resulting from furniture tipping on children are injuries to the brain and when a child is trapped under a heavy piece of furniture and suffocates,” said Gary Smith, MD, DrPH in the CPSC report. Dr. Smith is director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

Inez Tenenbaum, who championed child safety and advocacy issues before President Obama appointed her CPSC Chairman, stressed the importance of securing heavy objects in homes where young children are present. “Many parents are unaware of the deadly danger of this hidden hazard. I urge parents to include securing TVs, furniture, and appliances in their childproofing efforts. Taking a few moments now can prevent a tip-over tragedy later,” she said.

The CPSC issued the following tips on preventing tip-over injury and death:

• Furniture should be stable on its own. For added security, anchor chests or dressers, TV stands, bookcases and entertainment units to the floor or attach them to a wall.
• Place TVs on a sturdy, low-rise base. Avoid flimsy shelves.
• Push the TV as far back as possible.
• Place electrical cords out of a child’s reach, and teach kids not to play with them.
• Keep remote controls and other attractive items off the TV stand so kids won’t be tempted to grab for them and risk knocking the TV over.
• Make sure free-standing ranges and stoves are installed with anti-tip brackets.

Additionally, the CPSC said that it recently revised the warning labels attached to children’s furniture about the tip-over risk. Additional hardware will be provided with certain pieces of furniture to secure furniture to the floor or wall.

To see the entire statement or watch a video produced by the CPSC, visit the CPSC’s website.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am and is filed under News, brain injury, product liability, safety. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.