TV-Related Injuries in Children Shoot Up by 126 Percent

Number of children injured due to falling television sets has gone up to 126 percent in the past 20 years, a report in the journal Pediatrics say.

Nearly 200,000 children in the U.S. are injured due to falling televisions because either the sets are old , rickety and placed in places from where they tip over or children try to climb on them. The researchers found that in most of the cases, televisions were placed on dressers and the children with the help of open drawers climbed up to the set and fell.

Most of the injured children are below five years of age and usually damage their neck and head and also experience concussions at times.

The researchers studied the national ER data for television-related injuries that did not lead to deaths from 1990-2011.

"This is a problem that is increasing at an alarming rate," said lead author Dr. Gary Smith, a pediatric emergency specialist and president of the Child Injury Prevention Alliance in Columbus, Ohio.

According to the report, 12,300 children received emergency room treatment for injuries linked to TV in 2011, compared to 5,455 in 1990. It found that the rate of injury increased twice over the period of time from 0.85 injuries every 10,000 children below 18 in 1990 to 1.66 per 10,000 in 2011.

"A child is killed by a falling TV once every three weeks in this country," Dr Smith said. "These new findings show there's a lack of recognition of the potential dangers that TV tip-overs pose to young children."

The Associated Press citing government data reported that 215 children died from TV-related injuries in the past 20 years. Several reports show that at least six deaths across the country have been reported since January 2012 due to falling televisions.

The researchers suggest that people should be made aware about the dangers of falling of television. They further say that better TV stability standards are required.