(COLUMBUS, Ohio) December 2014 – Just in time for the holiday shopping season, researchers have published the most comprehensive study to date on toy-related injuries in children. Experts analyzed 22 years of data and found that from 1990 through 2011 the rate of toy-related injuries in children increased by nearly 40 percent. In 2011, a child was treated in a U.S. emergency department every 3 minutes for a toy-related injury, including a surprising number who were injured riding foot-powered scooters.
“Foot-powered scooters are of special concern. From 2000, after a new kind of foot-powered scooter first became popular, through 2011, there were an estimated 580,037 injuries – or about 1 every 11 minutes. Much of the increase in the overall toy injury rate after 1999 is due to foot-powered scooters. In fact, I will say that I’ve never seen anything like it in my career,” said Gary Smith, MD, DrPH, senior author of the study and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “We found children ages 5 and older were most often treated in emergency departments because of injuries sustained on ride-on toys, while those younger than 3 years of age were more likely to be injured by choking on small toys or toy parts,” said Smith
