Beware polished floors and mini scooters. :)

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/news/inde...=19&M=2&Y=2004

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Britain's fastest-growing dangers will be revealed today in government statistics - not criminals or disease, but the current fad for polished wooden floors and miniature scooters.
Slips on what can become the domestic equivalent of an ice rink accounted for the biggest percentage rise among the estimated 2.7 million accidents at home which needed hospital treatment in 2002.

Accidents in some categories, such as "conventional cookers", saw a small drop in the overall total compared with five years previously, but the victims of shiny floorboards or parquet rose by 400%. The leap, from 2,900 in 1998 to 12,300, was only beaten by the biggest menace in the outdoor accident field: a near-900% rise - to 19,700 falls or trapped fingers - from fashionable but hard-to-handle mini-scooters.

Negligent designers were partly blamed for the rise by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, after the data was released by the government's home and leisure accident surveillance system. Roger Vincent of Rospa said: "We need people to design with safety in mind in the first place, trying to think how the product might be used. They also need to give clear instructions about their products."

The overall total of 5.57 million hospitalised indoor and outdoor accidents saw smaller rises in old bugbears, including carpet falls, which have risen less sharply than falls on wooden floors but are still well ahead at 70,000 in 2002. Burns from microwave ovens rose from 1,800 to 2,700, while similar accidents with domestic cookers fell by 800 to 5,000.

The number of "trouser-related" accidents rose from 5,000 to 9,400, but zip-fly incidents fell slightly to 700.

A decline in other fashions and crazes was mirrored by fewer mishaps involving them - high heels, for instance, led to 8,500 accidents, compared with 15,000 in 1998. Mr Vincent said novelty was often a contributing factor in accident increases, abetted by a widespread reluctance to read the instructions first.

"Some people think it won't happen to them and just get the product out of the box and start using it," he said.

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