‘Alarming’ rise in children injured by falling TVs

American children might be reading about the sky falling in Chicken Little, but it's falling televisions that are making them duck, according to a new study.

An article published online by Pediatrics on Monday found more than 17,000 children in the U.S. — one every 30 minutes — visit emergency departments each year because of injuries from televisions.

[ Related: Child injuries from falling TVs increasing in U.S. ]

TVs sometimes fall from dressers, armoires or other unstable stands that children might climb on, leading them to hurt their heads, necks or legs. The study found most of those injured were under the age of five.

Falling televisions injured 5,455 Americans under the age of 17 in 1990, while in 2011, researchers counted 12,300 injuries.

The number of injuries has increased at an "alarming rate," the study's lead author, Dr. Gary Smith, told the Associated Press.

There are also more televisions in U.S. homes today than there were 20 years ago. The study says more than half of households have three or more TVs.

But more screens doesn't entirely explain the increase in injuries from falls, the researchers wrote, because other television-related injuries have decreased.

For example, the number of people who hurt themselves by "striking" a TV went down by 68 per cent over the same period. Maybe the urge to strike televisions also went down as flat-screens replaced bunny-eared, fuzzy boxes.

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In seriousness, however, the authors say falling televisions pose a significant risk of injury to children and parents should be aware of the danger. They recommend television manufacturers provide devices to anchor furniture and redesign TV models to make them more stable.

Alternatively, kids can spend more time outside scraping their knees. Oh wait, that's risky too.