Bathtub Accidents Injure 43,000 U.S. Kids...( Manufacturers need to make tubs more ...),Health

Manufacturers need to make tubs more slip-resistant, experts say,,

MONDAY, July 13 (HealthDay News) -- More than 43,000 children are injured in slips and falls in bathtubs each year in the United States, researchers report.

Earlier studies of bathtub injuries concentrated on burns from hot water and drowning and near-drowning. This is the first study that looked at injuries caused by slips and falls, according to the report published in the July 13 online edition of Pediatrics.

"What caught our attention was the frequency of the slips and falls," said lead researcher Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

There are about 120 kids a day injured by slips and falls in bathtubs and showers, and that number is constant over the 18 years the researchers looked at, Smith said. "That is really telling me that we have a problem that needs to be addressed," he noted.

There are things that can be done to prevent these injuries, Smith said. "Parents need to use slip-resistant mats in and outside of bathtubs to prevent slips and falls," he said.

But, Smith also wants manufacturers to make safer tubs and showers. "Manufacturers need to go back and look at the current standard for slip resistance and strengthen that criteria," he said.

For the study, Smith's team used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1990 to 2007. The researchers looked at some 791,200 bathtub- and shower-related injuries in children aged 18 and younger treated in emergency departments.

The study found that the greatest number of injuries were in children aged 2 years. In all, children aged 4 and younger accounted for 54.3 percent of the injuries. Most injuries (71.3 percent) happened in the bathtub, and 97.1 percent happened
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