Back when a television set was a very large piece of furniture that sat on the living room floor, no one worried about it toppling over simply because it couldn't topple. But now that televisions are large thin pieces of electronics that can be top heavy, small children run the risk of pulling them down and being injured.
These accidents with free-standing flat-screen televisions are becoming more common and are likely to increase in number as the prices of flat screen televisions decrease.
A study published in the journal Journal of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics, looked at data from 29 studies from seven countries that evaluated head and neck injuries related to falling televisions. More than 80% of the injuries occurred at home, and three out of four of the accidents were not witnessed by adult caregivers.
Almost all reported deaths were due to brain injuries. The worst injuries, those to the head and neck, were found to be most common among toddlers age 1 to 3, and may require brain imaging or surgery.
A study of data from U.S. hospitals found that there were 42,000 injuries from falling televisions between 1998 and 2007.
In many of these incidents, the flat-screen television was large and had been placed on a piece of furniture not designed to support the television, such as a dresser. The child would try to climb up and then inadvertently pull down the top-heavy television. The study urged that flat-screen television should be placed in such a way that a toddler cannot pull it down.
Flat-screen televisions are usually sold with a stand that may not be completely stable. Wall mounts for flat televisions are an extra purchase. Securely mounting the television on a wall or connecting it to a wall reduces the risk of injury to children.