Injuries Caused By Falling Furniture

Posted by MCC on May 16th, 2009 at 07:00am

The amount of injuries caused by falling furniture has drastically risen. While it might just sound like a really bad joke, over 14,000 people are injured each year from falling furniture in the United States alone.

Researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy went over the records for injuries caused by furniture that had fell, or tipped over for a period of 18 years. Their research found that this type of injury has increased about 40 percent.

Most of the reported injuries were children that were from the age of 6 and younger. The injuries most commonly involved televisions, many of which were placed on furniture that wasn’t made to hold a television set. In some cases, the children had pulled furniture over on top of them, or furniture tipping over when it had been bumped into.

In any case, the study has caused questions to be raised as to whether or not the home furnishings industry is taking enough steps to make furniture more safe. While some items such as shelves and entertainment centers can often be secured to a wall, there are many items that just can’t be completely child proofed.

There are things that parents can do to make their homes much safer for young children. Shelves, dressers and chests can be secured to the wall with simple brackets. Never place items like televisions on unstable furniture and don’t put childrens toys or books on a shelf that is too high for them to easily reach.

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