We are all used to our mums telling us that if we watch too much telly we will get square eyes, but can your telly really cause you an injury?
Well, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (more commonly known as RoSPA) have issued a warning as sales of television sets peek prior to the new digital switchover!
The society has looked at research carried out in the US over an 18 year period. The US research looked in to accidents caused by furniture ‘tip ups’ and the most common furniture item was the television set.
They claim that approximately 7500 young children are taken to hospital each year due to televisions falling on to them. The organisation report that they were aware of four fatalities involving children aged between 13 months and four years of age all caused by television sets.
The warning comes as our TVs become slimmer and thus all the more unstable. Our old TVs were much larger and would have required a lot of force to tip them over. Now, retailers are fighting to produce the slimmest television set they can in order to fit in with society’s contemporary way of living.
However, these slimmer sets are very unstable and children can very easily grab hold of them and pull them over.
RoSPA have stated that if you are purchasing a new TV set then you need to ensure that it is appropriately secured. If it is wall mounted then you should ensure that the correct fixtures are used to secure it to the wall and if it is to be placed on a stand then make sure your child cannot reach it or consider using straps to secure it in place.
