[vn-families] Nha^n di.p 1 em be' ga'i 3 tuo^?i bi. TV dde` che^'t, ...

[binhp at mylinuxisp.com]

Cha`o qui' vi.,

Nha^n di.p 1 em be' ga'i 3 tuo^?i bi. TV dde` che^'t,
chu'ng to^i xin nha('c qui' vi. pho`ng ngu+`a nhu+~ng ca'i
"ba^'t ngo+`" cu?a ddo+`i so^'ng\.

Cha`o

Pham Quoc Binh
http://vmdd.tech.mylinuxisp.com/vn-families/thumoi.html

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Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4046204.html

Falling TVs pose a growing danger

Local girl's death highlights
what one doctor calls 'a real public health issue'

By TODD ACKERMAN and ZEKE MINAYA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The 37-inch television sits in the dirt of the backyard, wet
from the rain and dented and cracked from the fury of Alejandro
Peña. His hands are swollen and the knuckles scabbed after he
attacked the set as if it were a blood enemy.

In a way, it is. On Wednesday, the television fell on his
3-year-old daughter, Lizzette, after she tried to climb it to
retrieve a toy. The set split her skull, Peña said.

"She was such a happy girl," said Peña, his eyes red from a
sleepless night spent in tears. While at the hospital, Peña
remembered the staff recalling other such similar accidents. "I
didn't know this happened so much," he said.

In the past year, at Memorial Hermann Hospital alone, there
have been 11 injuries from falling televisions. In the past
four months, five of those have resulted in death. The extent
of the problem at other Houston-area hospitals could not be
determined at press time.

The previous incident occurred July 6, when 2-year-old Diego
Martinez knocked a large television set onto himself and was
pinned beneath it for several minutes. He died later that day.

There are no national numbers for fatalities, but in 2005,
U.S. emergency-room doctors treated 2,600 children younger than
5 injured by falling televisions, according to the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission.

"It's become a real public health issue," said Dr. Stephen
Fletcher, chief of pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Memorial
Hermann Hospital. "Who would have thought?"


Keep out of reach Experts say the problem, already the subject of
at least three academic studies, is really more about inadequate
anchoring of TVs than it is about their design or size. Faulting
a lack of parental awareness and an absence of fundamental
prevention steps, they stressed the problem is easily avoidable.

Because many new televisions tend to be front-heavy, accidents
tend to happen when small children climb them or try to retrieve
objects on them. Experts said the most important thing is to
keep TVs out of reach of small children or at least anchor them
against a wall, and don't put things on them.

One of the studies called for manufacturers to make available
or include an inexpensive furniture-securing device, such as
a strap, and to add labels warning of the potential danger of
units toppling.

It also called for a public awareness campaign. The study noted
that a similar strategy involving injuries caused by falling
vending machines resulted in more units being secured to floors
and walls.

"More aggressive education about the risk of injury must be
implemented so parents take the time to display their televisions
safely," said Dr. Todd Maxson, medical director of trauma at
Children's Hospital of Austin and co-author of a study that
appeared in the June issue of Academic Emergency Medicine. "If
there is any silver lining that comes from tragedies likes this,
it is that sometimes, that's what it takes to bring a problem
to light."

Maxson's study found 85 percent of parents interviewed for the
study were not aware of the potential danger. None of the 26
cases his team reviewed at Children's Medical Center in Dallas
resulted in death, but Maxson noted that they were very severe —
"head injuries that can easily lead to death."

The study found bigger televisions sets were not a primary
factor. Televisions with 20- to 30-inch screens were most
commonly involved, making up 65 percent of cases. Sets between
30 and 40 inches constituted another 16 percent, and those
19 inches or smaller made up 19 percent of cases. Eighty-five
percent of the toppled TVs were situated between two and five
feet off the floor.


Easy to topple At the Peña home in Houston, the television
sat on a small wooden stand, no more than four feet off the
ground. Thursday afternoon, Alejandro Peña said he realizes how
easily the now-battered set could be toppled; to demonstrate,
he put his hand on top and gently pushed down, causing the set
to teeter on the ground.

Inside, Lizzette's mother, Rubi Soria, slept in a bedroom,
exhausted from crying. "She has slept nothing all night,"
Alejandro Peña said. "She was saying it was her fault."

It normally would be a happy time for the family; Soria
is expecting another child, and Thursday was Peña's 23rd
birthday. But it may be some time before happiness finds his
doorstep again, Peña said. "I feel like ... " he began to say,
before choking on the words.

More than 98 percent of U.S. homes have at least one TV set,
and one household of every four purchases a new model each
year, according to the Consumer Electronic Association, which
puts out TV-safety brochures for the industry. Researchers say
that pattern leads to unfamiliarity with issues such as size,
required safe clearance and weight distribution.

todd.ackerman at chron.com

zeke.minaya at chron.com