Every day, approximately 40 young children are taken to hospital emergency rooms with injuries suffered as a result of a heavy piece of furniture falling on them? Furthermore, TV sets were the most common item associated with tip-over injuries to children.

Dr. Gary Smith, head of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, used data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to analyze injuries to children in the U.S. between 1990 and 2007. During that time, an estimated 264,200 furniture tip-over related-injuries occurred, which required trips to emergency rooms. According to the study, published in Clinical Pediatrics, three-quarters of the injuries were to children 6-years-old and younger, with 1- to 3-year-olds being the most vulnerable.

A TV tip-over typically occurs when a child attempts to climb onto furniture (or into a drawer of a dresser on which a TV sits), causing the furniture and/or TV to fall onto the child. The child may also attempt to grab a toy from the top of a TV, or to change a DVD in a player on the TV, causing those items to fall.

Skull fractures are a common type of injury from a falling TV, which can lead to a range of short-term, long-term, or lifelong disabilities (many of which require rehabilitation.) They can include problems with bladder or bowel control, lessened cognitive ability, and lessened ability to bathe, dress, walk, eat independently, hear, see, speak, or feel (due to nerve damage).

If this information is alarming to you, it should be. But there are things you can do to protect your children, as well as any beloved family member – including the 4-legged ones!

TV lift cabinets and consoles are a beautifully decorative and safe alternative to dangerous TV stands. With a remote control, the TV (and all of the equipment that accompanies it – cable box, DVD player, cords and wires, etc.) can be “lifted” from the cabinet/console when you are ready to use them. More importantly, however, is that they “disappear” back into the cabinet when TV time is over, keeping both your investment and your family safe and secure.