Lawn Mowing is Risky Business for Kids
CLEVELAND -- Youngsters risk
serious injury around lawn mowers, statistics show. One of every five
deaths caused by a lawnmower involves a child, and most of the deaths
to children occur when a child falls off the riding mower and is run
over, or when a child is caught in a moving mower's path, according to
the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Doctors don?t need statistics to tell them what they see on a daily basis.
"Most of these injuries can be prevented if young children are properly supervised or simply kept out of the work area," says Walter Chwals, MD,
Director of the Level 1 Regional Pediatric Trauma Center at Rainbow
Babies & Children's Hospital, University Hospitals Health System.
Lawnmowers will cut almost anything in their path with blades that spin
up to 200 miles per hour. At that speed, even a dull blade can slice
fingers and toes or turn sticks, stones and other objects into deadly
projectiles. "Parents should not allow children to play where someone
is operating a lawn mower or to ride a mower either," says Dr. Chwals,
who also is Director of the Rainbow Community Safety & Resource
Center, lead agency for the Greater Cleveland SAFE KIDS Coalition.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that almost 10,000 children
a year are treated for injuries caused by lawn mowers. Most of these
injuries involve older children and teens but younger children are not
immune to the risks. Whether a child is mowing the lawn or simply near
a moving lawnmower, there remains a significant threat of being cut,
amputated or struck by flying debris.
The Greater Cleveland SAFE KIDS Coalition offers the following safety
tips to keep your yard beautiful and your kids safe while doing yard
work:
· Keep children away
from any work area in which any type of walk behind, riding, or
hand-held outdoor power equipment is being used.
· The best place for a
child during the time that a piece of outdoor power equipment is being
used is inside the house.
· If any child enters a
work area, immediately turn off any outdoor power equipment that is in
use.
· Do not allow a child
to operate or play with any type of outdoor power equipment, even when
it is not in use. Only allow responsible adults who are familiar with
the outdoor power equipment to operate it.
· Store the ignition
keys to pieces of outdoor power equipment away from the piece of
equipment itself when it is not in use.
· Riding mowers should
never carry passengers, especially children or tow trailers filled with
children.
· Clear the work area
of any objects such as twigs, stones and toys that could be picked up
and thrown by lawn mower blades or other apparatus.
· Always look down and behind for children before, and while, backing up.
For a free booklet about outdoor power equipment safety, contact the
Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) at 341 South Patrick Street,
Alexandria, VA 22314 or visit their web site at www.opei.org. Or,
for more safety tips, visit www.safekids.org
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Posted on Friday, July 09, 2004 (Archive on Friday, July 16, 2004) |
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