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Many peoples' homes harbor a threat that safety regulations, surprisingly, have overlooked: glass tables. When children jump on them, sit on them or knock them over, they can shatter, causing severe lacerations. The injuries can leave disfiguring scars and damage tendons and nerves, and one fatal case was recently reported in Rhode Island.
“Huge shards of glass are basically like knives. If they sever an artery, they can cause uncontrolled bleeding, and the injury can be fatal,” says Amir Kimia, MD, in Children's Hospital Boston's Division of Emergency Medicine.
Certain glass bottles, doors and windshields—but not tables—are mandated to contain tempered glass, which is four to five times stronger than standard glass and breaks into uniform, harmless fragments. Consumers Union has been trying to mandate safety glass in tables for years, and began collaborating with Kimia on a systematic study after media reported on patients seen at Children's for glass-table lacerations.
Using a computer algorithm to search electronic records, Kimia and colleagues identified 174 injuries logged by the Emergency Department between 1995 and 2007. On reviewing the patients' charts, he concluded that half of the injuries would have been preventable or less severe with safety glass. Almost two-thirds of patients were boys, and the median age was 3.4 years. Cuts were most often on the face, especially in young children, followed by feet, legs, hands and arms. Forty percent of patients needed imaging to find buried pieces of glass, and 80 percent needed surgical repair. There's more to come: Kimia is now investigating two similar safety threats: glass thermometers and Christmas ornaments.
Lois Lee, MD, MPH, of Emergency Medicine, was senior author of the study, which appears in the March issue of Pediatric Emergency Care. Coauthors include Mark Waltzman, MD, and Michael Shannon, MD, MPH, of Emergency Medicine, and Patrick Johnston, MMath, of the Clinical Research Program.
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