"It's a dangerous piece of machinery and leaving it in the home unattended and accessible to young children could result in a serious hand injury," said George Foltin, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Bellevue Hospital Center. "If you have one, it needs to be unplugged and out of children's reach."
The authors also summarize the findings of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's (CPSC) recent investigation into home paper shredder injuries. The article discusses several points of concern including the ages of injured. Twenty-two (71%) of the 31 home paper shredder injuries involved children under 12 years of age and over half of those injuries involved children under 3 years of age. Most of the injuries that resulted in amputations occurred mostly to children under 6 years of age.
Easy access to the shredder and to the blades itself was also a major area of concern. The CPSC assessment of sample home paper shredders ranged from 13 to 16.5 inches, allowing easy access to toddlers. Additionally, every machine tested by the CPSC was found to potentially allow a child's fingers to contact the cutting blades. Moreover, the control switches on many models did not have on/off switches. Some models even had "auto" settings where the blades are activated when papers are placed in the opening. The report also found that no machine tested had a release mechanism to allow separation
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Contact: Jennifer Choi
jennifer.choi@nyumc.org
212-404-3555
New York University Medical Center and School of Medicine
6-Feb-2006