Today, researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio released their findings from a study conducted on injuries among children and adolescents from furniture tip-over. The researchers, which included Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the hospital, used data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to analyze injuries to children in the U.S. between 1990 and 2007. During that time, an estimated 264,200 furniture tip-over related injuries occurred that required a trip to the emergency room. That's an average of 14,700 serious injuries per year but the data showed there was actually a greater than 40 percent increase in injuries over the 18-year time period. That’s very disturbing.
According to the study, published in Clinical Pediatrics, three-quarters of the injuries were to children 6-years-old and younger with 1- to 3-year-olds being the most vulnerable. Head and neck injuries were the most common, many the result of a TV falling on a child. Pulling and climbing on furniture accounted for more than 25 percent of the injuries.
ASTM-International publishes a voluntary safety standard to minimize the risk of tipping furniture, but testing by Consumers Union has shown that it’s not difficult to find furniture on the market that doesn’t comply with the standard. More importantly, we found furniture from major manufacturers that is still dangerously tippy notwithstanding its compliance with the standard. We’ve been working with ASTM to strengthen that standard and a new, improved one is scheduled to be published within the next few months.—Don Mays
More on tip-over dangers
Heaven forbid that the parents should have a little control with their kids.
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