July 14, 2006, 9:54AM Falling TVs pose a growing danger Local girl's death highlights what one doctor calls 'a real public health issue'
By TODD ACKERMAN and ZEKE MINAYA Houston Chronicle http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4046204.html The 37-inch television sits in the dirt of the backyard, wet from the rain and dented and cracked from the fury of Alejandro Peña. His hands are swollen and the knuckles scabbed after he attacked the set as if it were a blood enemy. In a way, it is. On Wednesday, the television fell on his 3-year-old daughter, Lizzette, after she tried to climb it to retrieve a toy. The set split her skull and killed her, Peña said. "She was such a happy girl," said Peña, his eyes red from a sleepless night spent in tears. While at the hospital, Peña remembered the staff recalling other such similar accidents. "I didn't know this happened so much," he said. In the past year, at Memorial Hermann Hospital alone, there have been 11 injuries from falling televisions. In the past four months, five of those have resulted in death. The extent of the problem at other Houston-area hospitals could not be determined at press time. The previous incident occurred July 6, when 2-year-old Diego Martinez knocked a large television set onto himself and was pinned beneath it for several minutes. He died later that day. There are no national numbers for fatalities, but in 2005, U.S. emergency-room doctors treated 2,600 children younger than 5 injured by falling televisions, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. "It's become a real public health issue," said Dr. Stephen Fletcher, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital. "Who would have thought?" Keep out of reach Experts say the problem, already the subject of at least three academic studies, is really more about inadequate anchoring of TVs than it is about their design or size. Faulting a lack of parental awareness and an absence of fundamental prevention steps, they stressed the problem is easily avoidable. Because many new televisions tend to be front-heavy, accidents tend to happen when small children climb them or try to retrieve objects on them. Experts said the most important thing is to keep TVs out of reach of small children or at least anchor them against a wall, and don't put things on them. One of the studies called for manufacturers to make available or include an inexpensive furniture-securing device, such as a strap, and to add labels warning of the potential danger of units toppling. It also called for a public awareness campaign. The study noted that a similar strategy involving injuries caused by falling vending machines resulted in more units being secured to floors and walls. "More aggressive education about the risk of injury must be implemented so parents take the time to display their televisions safely," said Dr. Todd Maxson, medical director of trauma at Children's Hospital of Austin and co-author of a study that appeared in the June issue of Academic Emergency Medicine. "If there is any silver lining that comes from tragedies likes this, it is that sometimes, that's what it takes to bring a problem to light." Maxson's study found 85 percent of parents interviewed for the study were not aware of the potential danger. None of the 26 cases his team reviewed at Children's Medical Center in Dallas resulted in death, but Maxson noted that they were very severe "head injuries that can easily lead to death." The study found bigger televisions sets were not a primary factor. Televisions with 20- to 30-inch screens were most commonly involved, making up 65 percent of cases. Sets between 30 and 40 inches constituted another 16 percent, and those 19 inches or smaller made up 19 percent of cases. Eighty-five percent of the toppled TVs were situated between two and five feet off the floor. Easy to topple At the Peña home in Houston, the television sat on a small wooden stand, no more than four feet off the ground. Thursday afternoon, Alejandro Peña said he realizes how easily the now-battered set could be toppled; to demonstrate, he put his hand on top and gently pushed down, causing the set to teeter on the ground. Inside, Lizzette's mother, Rubi Soria, slept in a bedroom, exhausted from crying. "She has slept nothing all night," Alejandro Peña said. "She was saying it was her fault." It normally would be a happy time for the family; Soria is expecting another child, and Thursday was Peña's 23rd birthday. But it may be some time before happiness finds his doorstep again, Peña said. "I feel like ... " he began to say, before choking on the words. More than 98 percent of U.S. homes have at least one TV set, and one household of every four purchases a new model each year, according to the Consumer Electronic Association, which puts out TV-safety brochures for the industry. Researchers say that pattern leads to unfamiliarity with issues such as size, required safe clearance and weight distribution. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
