People, people, people! You don’t live in a weightless environment! We have this thing called “gravity”, a concept that has been known to pretty much everyone for the past 300 years. Gravity is what causes heavy things to not going flying off into space. Destabilize a heavy thing and it will fall! Don’t be under a heavy falling thing or you will get hurt! What’s next? Pushing for labels that read Caution! Do not drop on feet! on cinderblocks?
It would be kind of nice if anchoring devices were required to be included with heavy furniture and TV’s. That way, you’d just automatically have the anchoring device when you bought the furniture- you wouldn’t have to take the extra step of getting one. More people would probably use anchoring devices if that were the case, which probably would save a few lives.
Well, they tried to label the packages on gravity, but that proved too expensive. As of now, all objects with nonzero mass must be clearly labeled to indicate their potential for injury if dropped from a height.
I read your quoted text three times trying to find the sense in it. This part
“If there were warning labels, or if there was any awareness that this could be a danger, believe me, the kind of mother I am, I wouldn’t have even let my son have a TV in his room,”
is the part I keep getting stuck on.
What I want to know is, how did they fall? Were they supported properly? Playing video games - OK, I have occasionally jerked the controller hard enough where the cord popped out or the PS itself fell over, but never the TV. And a 19-inch? That’s not light and easily pulled anyway! I am completely befuddled. 
From the second article:
I don’t think it should have been on a rolling stand. Or at least I would not put a 27 inch on a rolling stand.
Why was he trying to reach it? Don’t we have remotes?
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A dresser? A 37 inch TV on a dresser? We have a nice big dresser and yet I wouldn’t put my 24 inch on there I don’t think, it’s awfully high.
I’m still confused.
The kids probably wouldn’t stop to read the labels anyhow.
Let us hope that it sits unanchored, and falls on the committee.
More from the Staten Island Advance:
Then put them on proper entertainment centers instead of rolling stands or dressers!
Maybe the subcommittee has decided they shouldn’t try to legislate common sense?
I wonder if there was a warning label on the stand.
Oh my, my! Say it ain’t so. I was going to play catch with the kid using our (very large and heavy) TV set. It’s a good thing I read this here, I could have hurt her.
My kid broke her lip on our tile floor last night. I would also like to suggest a warning label on floors, I am sure many kids hurt themselves when they fall. I am planning on sueing those conniving Spaniards for producing defective tiles.
Well, I’m not sure that would make me feel better if my kid was hurt in this manner.
I think you’re all sort of missing the point here; the group is not asking that big TVs be banned, but simply that a few minor safety measures be taken. Good safety practice is about preventive measures, not just “Well, don’t be stupid.” All children can act stupidly. What’s so wrong about asking that anchoring devices be shipped along with televisions and such?
If we simply adopted the “Well, only stupid people get hurt, so we shouldn’t do (preventive safety measure X)” then we would not have seat belts, motorcycle helmets, level rail crossing guards, ground wired appliances, GFCI outlets, hard hats, safety boots, reflective anything, crosswalks, baby-proof bottles, or any number of safety devices we all take for granted.
It seems as if every week there is some new movement to pass laws mandating warnings against doing idiotic things. The “Do not attempt to stop chainsaw blade with hands” sticker is looking less ridiculous by the moment.
And we’ll also need warning labels on people’s hands, because hands can be used to punch peopoe.
And warning labels on everyone’s lips, in case they something hurtful.
Am I the only one who responded to this by thinking “Why are you letting a television babysit your child anyway? If you had been watching your child try to climb onto the TV, you’d have seen it happening.”
Yeah, but none of us are criticizing anchorind devices, or suggestions of its use. We are just sayign that warnings won’t stop a toddler from doing something potentially dangerous. They can’t read anyways, you know.
Good saftey practice is also about using the right object for the right function. A dresser is not meant to support a TV.
We have a 42-inch set, sitting on a short stand, on thick carpet. The TV just fits the stand, and I think we need to get a bigger one (stand, not TV).
I’ve jiggled and bumped it and it doesn’t move, but it still makes me nervous. I think anchors would be great.
I’m fine with warning labels. It’s easy to become thoughtless about things we use every day.
Ya know, when you have children, you are supposed to supervise them.
:rolleyes:
I feel horrible for the kids, but come on–TVs are heavy objects!
I’ve done it before. I’ve had a tv fall on me when I was a little sprout. I don’t recall why I was attached to the front of the tv, but it fell on me. I don’t remembre being hurt. All I remember is this “holyfuckingshiti’vegottagetthistvoffofmebeforeiflipout!” thought going through my head.
Damned kids these days…bunch of pussies, I tells ya. Back then, we had pointy ridges on our tv sets! They were designed to entertain AND maim!
Oh yeah. The local TV station did a report where they found that entertainment centers, when fully loaded and placed on a 25° incline, could tip over and kill your child.
They also did a report on paper shredders – seems that if you leave them plugged in with the switch in the “on” position, your child’s fingers could get mangled. :rolleyes:
I somehow doubt it would solve liability issues. How much leverage can an obese toddler put on the front of a TV if he’s determined to pull it over? How strong would that anchor have to be before parents would say, “This anchor wasn’t strong enough to protect my child from doing something amazingly dimwitted!”?
Of course, I’m thinking of the Earthquake Straps they sell with bookcases: sort of a nod to bookcase safety more than anything. It wouldn’t stop someone who was resolved to pull the bookcase down on himself.
It’s not that anchors are a bad idea. It’s the notion that our nation stupidity has reached such levels that someone thinks we need to be told that big TVs are heavy.
What the hell is the label going to say? “Ya know this gigantic object that gave you a hernia as you and a firend hoisted it onto this tiny little cart, the one that wobbles violently if walk past it too fast? Guess what? It’s heavy and unstable and could hurt someone!” No shit, really? I would never have guessed that in a million years had this helpful label not informed me.
Do we now need to be reminded that our umbrellas need to be held curve-downward to effectively keep us dry? That we shouldn’t try to breathe sand? How far should this have to go before we demand that people use the brains they were born with?
This all brings to mind Douglas Adams’ fictional character, Wonko the Sane, who built an asylum to house the entire world after he discovered a box of toothpicks with instructions for toothpick use on it. He had decided that a world that needed such things shouldn’t be allowed out on its own.
I feel bad that kids have been crushed by TVs and all, but warning labels?
Why the hell are we ending up spending more and more time and money warning people about the obvious?
Caution, knife may be sharp! :rolleyes:
I can understand making changes in how things are made or packaged, to make them safer. Getting rid of drawstrings on kids’ clothes, for example. But warning labels? The people idiotic enough not to know that their hot coffee may be hot won’t stop to read the warning anyway.