| ■ Wheeled Shoes Linked to 1,600 ER Visits in U.S. Last Year | 07.06.11 |
| Popular wheeled shoes cause more injuries than previously believed and were linked to about 1,600 emergency room visits in the United States last year, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday. Most of those injuries occurred to children, CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson told the Associated Press. Last week, the CPSC said it knew of at least 64 wheeled shoe-related injuries and one death in the United States between September 2005 and December 2006. The higher injury figures released Wednesday are based on a more recent and thorough analysis of data by agency statisticians, Wolfson said. On Tuesday, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons posted new wheeled-shoe safety recommendations on its Web site, the AP reported. The academy recommends the use of helmets, wrist protectors and knee and elbow pads when children wear wheeled shoes. Doctors worldwide have reported treating numerous kinds of injuries -- such as cracked skulls, broken arms, wrists and ankles, dislocated elbows -- in children who were injured while wearing wheeled shoes. |