Report: Mowing the lawn can be injurious to youngsters
(FOX NEWS)- Getting children to mow the lawn is a common way to teach them responsibility. But a new study found that more than 9,000 youngsters are injured in the U.S. every year while mowing the lawn.
The researchers compared pediatric-mowing injuries during a recent 10-year period with the previous 15 years. The number of children who get hurt annually hasn't changed in more than two decades, they found.
More than a third of the injured children in the latest study, which was published in the American Journal of Surgery, were under 12 years of age, and there was a spike in injuries recorded at ages 3 and 16. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children be at least 12 years old before operating any mower and at least 16 to operate a riding or tractor-style mower.
The study, at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, used data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to identify patients age 20 and younger treated for mowing-related injuries between 2004 and 2013. The commission collects data from approximately 100 emergency departments to produce national estimates. The data were compared with an earlier review of pediatric mowing-related injuries from 1990 to 2004.