In our personal injury law practice in Atlanta, Georgia, we see many traumatic injury cases. Recently, McConnell & Sneed was hired to represent the interests of a four year old child whose hand and fingers were severely mutilated in a home shredder. Sadly, she lost parts of three of her fingers.
With the ominous rise in identity theft cases, more and more people have been purchasing paper shredders for their homes. But recent studies show that these paper shredders can lead to finger injuries, mutilations, lacerations -- and even amputations -- in young children.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently investigated home paper shredder injuries. Their research shows that 22 (71 percent) of the 31 home paper shredder injuries were to children under 12 years of age. Over half of those injuries involved children under 3 years of age.
As recently discussed on parents.com, children like to imitate adult behavior, and using a paper shredder is no exception. Since most paper shredders were originally built for office use, they do not include child-safety components. THE CPSC assessed that a home paper shredder's opening (where paper is inserted) ranges from 13 to 16.5 inches, allowing easy access for a toddler's little fingers. And every one of these machines potentially allowed a child's fingers to reach through to the cutting blades. In addition, most of these shredders do not include on/off buttons and instead are automatically activated when papers (or fingers) are placed in the opening. Researchers concluded the article with a call to manufacturers to redesign the shredders to make them safer for children and to display clear warnings directly on the machines
The CPSC offers the following safety tips -- to protect both parents and children -- for your home paper shredder:
- Never allow children to operate paper shredders, even under adult supervision. Paper shredders can pull childrens' fingers into the shredder mechanism
- Place the paper shredder in an area less accessible to children.
- Unplug the paper shredder power cord when the shredder is not in use.
- Do not place hands or fingers in the shredder opening.
- Do not operate a paper shredder while wearing loose fitting clothing that may enter the shredder opening.
- Keep hair and items, such as a tie or long necklace, away from the shredder opening.
The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission recently issued the following Paper Shredder Safety Alert:
Paper Shredder Safety Alert
Consumer model paper shredders are growing in popularity. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants you and your family to be safe if you have a paper shredder. From January 2000 through September 2005, CPSC received 50 reports of incidents involving finger amputations, lacerations, and other finger injuries from paper shredders. The majority of injuries were to young children under age 5.
Young children are interested in imitating adult activities, and children may try to activate the shredder when an adult is not present. This puts children at risk of injury.
Injuries can occur even when an adult is supervising a child. Children’s fingers can be pulled into the paper shredding mechanism if they don’t let the paper go.
Never allow children to operate a paper shredder, even under adult supervision. Injuries can still occur. The pull force of the shredder can draw a child’s fingers into the shredding mechanism.
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