More kids hurt by falling TVs

[Hum]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A child is rushed to a U.S. emergency department every 45 minutes with an injury that's related to a falling television, according to a new study.

"These are occurring primarily to younger children? When (the TVs) start coming toward them, they don't realize the danger," said Dr. Gary Smith, the study's senior author and president of the Child Injury Prevention Alliance.

Previous research has found that TVs are involved in child injuries, and that the frequency may be increasing. But according to the report published on Monday in Pediatrics, those studies were mostly small case studies, and the information was becoming out of date as the style and average number of TVs in U.S. homes has been changing in recent years.

For a more recent look at TV-related injuries in U.S. children from 1990 through 2011, Smith and his colleagues used a database of emergency department visits at a nationally representative sample of hospitals

The researchers found that about 381,000 children and teenagers were treated in U.S. emergency departments for TV-related injuries during that time.

More than half of the injuries were caused by falling TVs, another 38 percent were caused by children running into the units and about 9 percent were caused by other situations, including televisions being moved from one location to another.

The majority of the injuries were to boys and about 64 percent of the injuries were to children less than five years old. Two-year olds were the age group most likely to be hurt. There were six deaths.

The head and neck area was the most common site of injury, and cuts, bruises and concussions the most common types of injury.

 Although homes have more TVs now than years ago, Smith said that doesn't explain why injuries related to falling TVs were increasing but not injuries from running into the units.

"What we're finding is when those second and third TVs are being brought into these homes, the (older and bulkier units) are being moved and put in other parts of the home that are unsafe," said Smith, who is also director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

For example, as more people buy flat-screen TVs, their older and bulkier units are being put in bedrooms or playrooms on top of dressers, bureaus, drawers and armoires, which may tip over because they were never designed to support TVs.

"TVs need to be strapped or anchored to the wall. I think that's our biggest problem right now. Many parents are unaware that TVs can be so life threatening if it topples over and falls on top of your child," Smith said.

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[ahhell]

""TVs need to be strapped or anchored to the wall. I think that's our biggest problem right now. Many parents are unaware that TVs can be so life threatening if it topples over and falls on top of your child," Smith said."

 

Those are some stupid-ass parents.  Big bulky heavy thing can hurt my child?  NO WAY!!

 

:s

[Dick Montage]

A child is rushed to a U.S. emergency department every 45 minutes with an injury that's related to a falling television, according to a new study.

 

Don't let that child near your TV.  Job done!

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

This sounds like a problem that they would have had in the 70s.  Flatscreens are the same price and cheaper than picture tube tv. The solution is to buy a modern flatscreen. Flatscreens are much lighter, save energy, and have better picture.

[Nagisan]

"Many parents are unaware that TVs can be so life threatening if it topples over and falls on top of your child," Smith said.

"Many parents are idiots" would have sufficed.

[+Warwagon MVC]

[Hum]

"Many parents are idiots" would have sufficed.

Many kids are not too bright, either.

 

I never had the impulse to climb on, or pull on a crt TV, as a kid.

[ahhell]

This sounds like a problem that they would have had in the 70s.  Flatscreens are the same price and cheaper than picture tube tv. The solution is to buy a modern flatscreen. Flatscreens are much lighter, save energy, and have better picture.

 

Umm...a flatscreen is MUCH more likely to fall on a kid than old bigass CRTs.  Flatscreens are much less stable.

I bet most of the accidents are the result of poorly secured flatscreens.

[_dandy_]

This sounds like a problem that they would have had in the 70s.  Flatscreens are the same price and cheaper than picture tube tv. The solution is to buy a modern flatscreen. Flatscreens are much lighter, save energy, and have better picture.

 

What I mostly got from the article is that as people replace their older TVs, they keep those older TVs but place them on top of furniture that wasn't designed for the weight.  Hence the problem isn't the newer TVs, it's what people do with the older/bulkier/heavier ones.

 

Otherwise, yeah, if an LCD is properly anchored to a wall mount, it's pretty hard to see where the danger is.  Besides, if your kids are in danger of having the TV fall on top of them, they're just too close.

Umm...a flatscreen is MUCH more likely to fall on a kid than old bigass CRTs.  Flatscreens are much less stable.

I bet most of the accidents are the result of poorly secured flatscreens.

 

Still, if I'm gonna have a TV fall on top of me, I'd rather have a flatscreen.  My folks just replaced the 61" CRT they bought in 2001.  According to the manual, that thing is 288lbs (130kb).  That was fun to bring up the basement stairs.

[gameboy1977]

what do you think of this tv projector?

 

I think it will be safer or not?

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Projectors-Screens/TV-Projectors/pcmcat158900050018.c?id=pcmcat158900050018

[Grinch]

Umm...a flatscreen is MUCH more likely to fall on a kid than old bigass CRTs.  Flatscreens are much less stable.

I bet most of the accidents are the result of poorly secured flatscreens.

 

More likely perhaps, but at the same time when the average 32" LCD weighs about 13lbs then your child is a lot less likely to get injured from it hitting them and if they do it'll definitely be less severe.

[The Evil Overlord]

At this rate stock stands will be redesigned to be huge and the footprint will become the size of large crt's

Why are children messing with TV's in a way that they are falling on them, (I've warned my kids not to touch the TV, they listened)

[Julius Caro]

yeah the study doesn't really mention what kind of TVs are the culprit. a spike in falling TVs in recent years could either be because of "unsecured" CRTs (although I fail to see how they would be more insecurely installed than they were before) or because, like people are pointing out, flatscreens being flat and all, are more likely to just fall.. flat. 

[gameboy1977]

I born deaf and my hearing family never taught me about house safety around the house. I knew better that tv and others are heavier which they are danger to me. I had wisdom about this.

[moloko]

Our TV is on the wall.  Kids cannot touch it at all.  We only have one tv in the house.  I do not want tvs in the bedrooms or rec room. 

 

I guess before tvs were too heavy to move. Now with flat screens being lighter easier to bump them and fall.

[The Evil Overlord]

Our TV is on the wall.  Kids cannot touch it at all.  We only have one tv in the house.  I do not want tvs in the bedrooms or rec room. 

 

I guess before tvs were too heavy to move. Now with flat screens being lighter easier to bump them and fall.

Agreed, but in this instance, I would ask why are they playing near the TV, my kids are allowed to play anywhere in the house where there isn't a danger to them hurting themselves, or in the garden, where they should know better than to play with something that can hurt them. (by this I mean a broken fence panel with exposed nails and such)

[norseman]

Umm...a flatscreen is MUCH more likely to fall on a kid than old bigass CRTs.  Flatscreens are much less stable.

I bet most of the accidents are the result of poorly secured flatscreens.

This is why I mount my TV on the wall...

[Sszecret Veteran]

"When (the TVs) start coming toward them, they don't realize the danger". Am I the only one who, upon reading this, imagined a Doctor-Who type situation? 

The solution would be to either mount your TV into the wall or just not let the kid too close to the TV.  Or maybe have a separate playroom for the kid?

[Hum]

This is why I mount my TV on the wall...

Maybe mounting the kid on the wall would work better. :shifty:

[medhunter]

weird, I recall very few cases during my 6 years in Emergency Medicine

[moloko]

Agreed, but in this instance, I would ask why are they playing near the TV, my kids are allowed to play anywhere in the house where there isn't a danger to them hurting themselves, or in the garden, where they should know better than to play with something that can hurt them. (by this I mean a broken fence panel with exposed nails and such)

kids will be kids.  Can't always keep the kids from danger.  Remember not everyone has a big house or apt.  Family rooms are multi purpose in some instances. 

 

The solution would be to either mount your TV into the wall or just not let the kid too close to the TV.  Or maybe have a separate playroom for the kid?

 

I would agree with you but not everyone has a big house.  We only have a 1000sq house with 4 people in it.  To get a bigger house with separate room would cost 500k plus. 

[The Evil Overlord]

kids will be kids.  Can't always keep the kids from danger.  Remember not everyone has a big house or apt.  Family rooms are multi purpose in some instances. 

 

No I mean move have a sit down and talk to the kids, tell them why it's dangerous, my house isn't big neither, nor is my garden, (though I have no idea how big it actually is in square footage)

[+DonC Subscriber²]

When I first read the article, I thought it was about TVs getting chucked out of windows onto people on the street.

 

But yeah, if the flat-screen TV is free standing and heavy then get it strapped.