Every 24 minutes tipped furniture or a falling TV sends an injured child to the emergency room. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Anchor It! campaign is a call to action for parents and caregivers to take simple, low-cost steps to prevent these tragedies.

In this new video, three moms describe their child’s tragic tip-over story and urge other parents of young children to avoid this danger by anchoring furniture and TVs to the wall.  

CPSC’s most recent data show that there were 430 fatalities between 2000 and 2013 involving young children who became trapped under the weight of a dresser, TV, bookcase, table, appliance or other large item fell over onto them.

As flat screen TVs drop in price and increase in popularity, many consumers are moving old CRT/tube TVs into the basement or children’s bedrooms. These old heavy TVs are being placed on unstable furniture and are toppling over onto curious children. According to a CPSC study, 42 percent of tip-over fatalities occur in bedrooms.

CPSC wants consumers to get rid of old CRT TVs by taking them to a recycling center.  

Preventing tip-over incidents is easy, inexpensive, and only takes 5 minutes. CPSC recommends that parents anchor existing furniture with inexpensive anti-tip brackets available at home, hardware or electronics stores, and make sure anti-tip brackets that now come with new furniture are installed right away. Always remove items from the top of TVs and furniture that might tempt kids to climb, such as toys or remote controls.

For more information, please visit www.AnchorIt.gov.

VIDEO PROVIDED BY: U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)

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