Wooden floors lead to more home injuries

Wooden floors instead of carpets are leading to more accidents for people in homes across the UK, it was revealed today.

In a new report detailing how people in the UK hurt themselves at home and at leisure, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) found that around 2,701,000 people in the UK went to hospital because of accidents at home in 2002, while 2,876,000 sought treatment after being hurt while out and about.

The surge in sales of wooden flooring has kept hospital casualty departments busy. Statistics revealed 12,300 people falling on wood floors in 2002. Five years earlier the figure was only 2,900. Many of these accidents involved slipping when walking about at home barefoot or wearing socks. Falls on carpets also increased from 55,000 to 70,000.

However, encouragingly the trend overall is down, including a near 25% reduction in suspected child poisonings in five years to 24,800 cases. But some types of accident have risen.

The scooter craze had its downside, for example. In 1998, about 2,200 people, mainly children were hurt, usually on ordinary toy scooters. But in 2002 there were 19,700 people injured as the mania for new sleeker scooters reached its height.

Changing cooking habits have also led to fresh accident problems. Figures for 2002 show 2,700 people being hurt cooking with microwave ovens, five years before there were only 1,800. About half of these accidents involve burns from hot liquids. In the same period, the number of people injured using conventional cooker hobs reduced from 5,800 to 5,000.

Today's figures are from the final report of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System, covering the years 2000-2002.

(MB)