Suburban Lawn Warriors Should Exercise Caution
March 30, 2001 -- Oil up the lawnmower and start planting those pansies. After months of indoor exile, it's time to get back in the yard. But be careful out there because the pursuit of a killer lawn could be ... well, maybe not deadly, but dangerous.
More than 60,000 children and adults end up in hospital emergency rooms each year due to lawnmower accidents, according to figures from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. These injuries are often serious, with one-quarter of hand and foot traumas resulting in amputations.
And dangers may be lurking in places of which you never thought. A study published in the February issue of Pediatric Emergency Care suggests that those metal lawn edgings used to separate grass from flowerbeds pose a big threat to kids. Between January 1995 and October 1997, 126 children in Denver were treated at area hospitals for lacerations caused by stepping or falling on the landscape edgings.
The vast majority of the injuries (89%) -- mostly cuts to the feet or knees -- were serious enough to require suturing. And one of the injured children was hospitalized. The authors conclude that metal lawn edgings pose a serious risk to suburban children, and they advise against using them.
The typical lawn or garden is filled with many other potential hazards. These include electric garden tools, which should not be used in wet or damp conditions; pool chemicals, some of which can spontaneously combust if contaminated; and pesticides and other chemicals. Approximately 2 million people and countless household pets are affected each year by common household pesticides.
"All kinds of dangerous chemicals are available to the public, but few people ever read the warnings on the bottles to learn how to protect themselves," Mark Bates of Bates Garden Center in Nashville, Tenn., tells WebMD. "Chemicals used in gardening can do a lot of damage to the eyes and lungs. Protective goggles are important, and you need a good filtered mask. A painter's mask won't really protect against noxious fumes."
Many gardening injuries occur when people who have been sedentary all winter overdo it, National Safety Council consultant Alton Thygerson, MD, tells WebMD.
Suburban Lawn Warriors Should Exercise Caution
More than 60,000 children and adults end up in hospital emergency rooms each year due to lawnmower accidents, according to figures from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. These injuries are often serious, with one-quarter of hand and foot traumas resulting in amputations.
And dangers may be lurking in places of which you never thought. A study published in the February issue of Pediatric Emergency Care suggests that those metal lawn edgings used to separate grass from flowerbeds pose a big threat to kids. Between January 1995 and October 1997, 126 children in Denver were treated at area hospitals for lacerations caused by stepping or falling on the landscape edgings.
The vast majority of the injuries (89%) -- mostly cuts to the feet or knees -- were serious enough to require suturing. And one of the injured children was hospitalized. The authors conclude that metal lawn edgings pose a serious risk to suburban children, and they advise against using them.
The typical lawn or garden is filled with many other potential hazards. These include electric garden tools, which should not be used in wet or damp conditions; pool chemicals, some of which can spontaneously combust if contaminated; and pesticides and other chemicals. Approximately 2 million people and countless household pets are affected each year by common household pesticides.
"All kinds of dangerous chemicals are available to the public, but few people ever read the warnings on the bottles to learn how to protect themselves," Mark Bates of Bates Garden Center in Nashville, Tenn., tells WebMD. "Chemicals used in gardening can do a lot of damage to the eyes and lungs. Protective goggles are important, and you need a good filtered mask. A painter's mask won't really protect against noxious fumes."
Many gardening injuries occur when people who have been sedentary all winter overdo it, National Safety Council consultant Alton Thygerson, MD, tells WebMD.