- SANUS, a brand of TV wall mounts in the United States, has advocated for additional research and focus on TV safety, as a new study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics was recently published that calls attention to the dangers of TV tip-overs.
SANUS supports the study's senior author, Dr. Gary Smith, in his lead to take action via TV mounting, against this increasing problem. According to the study, more than 17,000 children - one every 30 minutes - are treated in emergency rooms across the country for TV related injuries every year. The rate of children hurt from TVs tipping over has nearly doubled in two decades.
According to the study, the number of kids injured by a TV falling on them grew 125 percent between 1990 and 2011. This information was gathered from emergency room records, bringing awareness to the need for greater prevention efforts.
"This is a serious problem, a child is dying once every three weeks from a TV tip-over," said Dr. Gary Smith, a pediatrician at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "The numbers are going up. This is a call to action. These are 100 percent preventable injuries."
Due to increasing size and new ultra thin designs, today's flat panel TVs can tip when bumped or pulled, causing them to topple off furniture, potentially causing injury or even death. In support of Dr. Gary Smith's findings and solutions, SANUS encourages parents to take proper precautions to decrease these preventable accidents by mounting TVs in the home. This year, SANUS and Safe Kids Worldwide partnered to educate consumers about the risk of unsecured flat panel TVs tipping and provide safety solutions.
Safe Kids Worldwide is engaging local coalitions for a grass roots educational movement while SANUS recently launched an educational site, www.tvsafety.org, as well as a national safety awareness consumer ad campaign. TV tip-over deaths are needless and steps can be taken to decrease these preventable accidents from occurring.
Use of a flat panel TV wall mount is a safe and secure way to avoid injury. At SANUS, safety is the number one priority and the company takes extensive measures and works with independent safety certification agencies to ensure that SANUS TV mounts meet US safety standards.
