How safe is your TV?

This Christmas, many families will take the opportunity to buy that new television set that the family has always wanted. The new sleek designs, improved picture quality and bigger screens are now within many families' budgets and offer viewing of a much higher standard.

But when looking for that ultimate viewing experience, please consider some of the risks that are associated with the new designs. The risk to small children and toddlers is very real and what was to be the great family purchase can become the great family tragedy.

From January 1996 to December 2000, The Children's Hospital at Westmead has cared for ten children in the Emergency Department with an injury caused by a television set. This included a four-year-old boy admitted with concussion and intracranial injury. A large television toppled over onto him in a lounge room. A four-year-old and a one-year-old girl experienced a similar fate.

Pulling televisions so they crush small feet and legs has also been a problem with broken toes, bruising and other injuries to the feet. Cuts and bruises usually accompany all of the above and sometimes the injuries are severe enough for the child to be admitted to hospital.

A search of the Victorian Injury Surveillance System (VISS) shows a total number of 108 television-related injuries at 28 hospitals in Victoria from July 1996 to June 2001. 82 (75%) of these injuries occurred when a TV was pulled, dropped or fell onto a child.

The message is clear, small children can - and do - pull television sets onto themselves. Tragically, this has been the cause of death on more than one occasion. Protect your family by ensuring that the television is completely out of the reach of small children, that it is well secured and that they cannot climb on other furniture to reach it. Do not leave toddlers unsupervised.

Check the centre of gravity and the stability from the front of any television set before you buy it. You may have to compromise on style to ensure that you do not compromise on safety.

Finally, once you have bought the new family television, make sure that you don't sit in front of it too long. Some exercise and fresh air will do us all good this Christmas.