Latest fear from the US
Flat
screen televisions are the latest fear for parents who want to wrap their kids
in bubble wrap and protect their precious little snow flakes from real
life.
According to NBC nearly 17,000 children were rushed to emergency rooms
in 2007, the last year for which complete figures were available, after heavy or
unstable furniture fell over on them.
The study, published in the journal
Clinical Pediatrics by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in
Columbus, Ohio, found that the such injuries had risen 41 percent since
1990. But the bigger killer is the popularity of ever-bigger flat-panel
televisions that Americans have brought into their homes in that time, along
with the entertainment centres and narrow furniture.
The problem is that people shove
them on less-stable stands and falling flat screens make up half of the 'falling
furniture' injuries. Kids also don't seem to understand that you can't
actually climb a flat screen television and many parents seem to think it is
cute.