Anchoring Furniture: How to Keep Your Children Safe

 

Tip-over accidents typically occur when a child climbs onto, pulls up on or bumps into appliances or furniture. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports that 451 children aged 17 and under were killed when furniture and TVs tipped over between 2000 and 2019. Annually, an average of 11,100 children went to the emergency room for injuries resulting from a tip-over incident between 2017 and 2019. Children under the age of six made up 79% of all furniture and TV tip-over fatalities and 75% of tip-over fatalities for children involved a TV.

What Furniture Needs to Be Anchored?

Children climbing, pulling up on or bumping into free-standing, heavy furniture can happen in almost any room of your home. Furniture that is prone to tipping includes:

Dressers Desks Chests Shelving units and bookcases TVs and TV stands Tables Heavy Chairs Stoves Any tall and/or potentially unstable furniture or appliances

Dressers in particular pose a heightened risk of tipping over. Dressers with full-extension drawers can fall forward from the weight of the drawers and their contents.

How to Anchor Furniture

While there’s a variety of anchoring products available, there is a general set of guidelines consumers can follow. When applying the anchor to the wall, it is important to install screws into the studs designed to support your home. Studs are typically 16 inches apart and can be located using a stud finder tool.

When applying the anchor to the furniture itself, it is important to mount the fastener onto solid wood that can typically be found along the top or sides of the item. Fabric or thin wood may not be strong enough to withstand forward force, leading to a tipping incident.

For more information on anchoring furniture, please visit:

www.consumernotice.org/products/child-safety/anchoring-furniture/