Back-to-School: ABCs of Avoiding Back-to-School Injuries | DC Metro Area Personal Injury Law Blog
Home / Blog / Back-to-School: ABCs of Avoiding Back-to-School Injuries | DC Metro Area Personal Injury Law Blog
Parents should pay special attention this fall to safety issues surrounding back-to-school clothing, helmets and art materials, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Thanks to CPSC, avoiding personal injury this season is as easy as remembering your ABCs:
“A: Always wear the right helmet for the activity. Wearing a helmet significantly reduces the risk of a head injury and can save your child’s life. Bicycle helmets, for instance, can reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85 percent.There are different helmets for different activities. Each type of helmet is made to protect the head from the impacts that are common to a particular sport or activity. For the best protection, make sure your child wears the right helmet whether it’s for biking, football or baseball.
B: Be safe on the playground and on the soccer field. To prevent the most common type of playground injury — a child falling from equipment — make sure there is at least a nine inch layer of shock absorbing surface material made of wood chips, mulch, sand, or pea gravel, or safety-tested rubber or fiber material mats underneath and around playground equipment.Cover exposed hardware that can catch clothing, and remove any free-hanging ropes. Both are strangulation hazards.
On the soccer field, work with your school to ensure portable soccer goals are securely anchored when in use. Movable soccer goals can fall over and kill or injure children who climb on them or hang from the crossbar. Since 1979, CPSC has reports of at least 28 deaths associated with soccer goals.
C: Care with clothing and art materials. Don’t buy jackets or sweatshirts, or any upper outerwear for children, if they have hood or neck drawstrings. Remove drawstrings from hoods or around the necks of jackets and sweatshirts in your children’s closets. Drawstrings pose a strangulation hazard because they can get caught on playground equipment or other products. Over the past 20 years, CPSC has received reports of 23 deaths and 64 non-fatal incidents involving the entanglement of children’s clothing drawstrings.Art should be fun, not dangerous. Make sure any new art materials you buy or that your school uses contain the statement, ‘CONFORMS TO ASTM D-4236.’”
