Flat screen televisions save space and look great, but for parents with young children there’s also a danger.
Toppling televisions can severely injure or even kill small children, especially toddlers – and these accidents are likely to become more common because today’s larger, thinner TVs are more easily toppled when not mounted properly.
The majority of such “injuries occur when toddlers climb onto furniture to retrieve objects such as toys, or when they bump into unstable TV stands, causing the” televisions to fall over onto them.
Lead author Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, told Reuters “The vast majority (of these accidents) are preventable with very simple measures to avoid these events, which are always tragic.”
He suggests Children should be supervised when they are in the room with a TV. If that’s not possible, then restrict play areas where they will be out of harm’s way.
Caregivers should be mindful of not putting toys or bright objects near the TV that may encourage climbing. Securely mounting the TV to a wall also reduces injury risk.
The researchers considered 29 studies from seven countries analyzing TV-related head and neck injuries. More than 80 percent of reported injuries occurred at home, and three-fourths of the incidents were not witnessed by adult caregivers.