Lawn mowing: summer chore or health hazard?

Cutting the grass is a typical summer chore for many suburban teenagers and starting a neighborhood lawn-mowing business can be a rite of passage for the most entrepreneurial teens.

But if proper precautions are not taken, this common warm-weather activity can result in serious injuries - including amputations and death.

Thirteen children get treated each day, or 5,000 each year, for lawn mower-related injuries, according to a recent study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

The research, conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, should bring a heightened level of vigilance for many parents.

Children under 5 are most likely to be "backed over" or burned, the study showed. Older children and teens are more likely to be struck or cut by the mower or a projectile. Eight percent of injuries required admission to a hospital.

A child standing nearby or riding as a passenger on a mower was four times more likely to end up hospitalized than those operating one - demonstrating the need for both mowers and bystanders to exercise caution.

"We see quite a few lawn mower-related injuries each summer," says Dr. Charles Nozicka, an emergency medicine physician at Advocate Children's Hospital-Park Ridge. "Some can be quite serious, including amputations, as well as severe burns and cuts."

Hands and fingers are the most common body region injured, according to the study, accounting for more than 30 percent of injuries.

Lacerations are the most common injuries. Struck by, cut by and contact with a hot surface are the top causes of injuries.

Experts offer the following tips to keep children safe:

• Children under 6 should be kept indoors while the lawn is being mowed

• Always mow forward to reduce "back over" injuries

• Watch for stray items like rocks and sticks that can become projectiles while mowing

• Make sure the blade is off while traveling over gravel

• Parents should train and supervise the use of any mower by a young person

• Only children over 12 should push a mower, and only those over 16 should operate a ride-on model

One bright spot in the study: the lawn mower-related injury rate has decreased by 60 percent since 1990.

Yet the number of injuries remains substantial, creating opportunities for improvements in mower design and lawn mower safety standards, study authors advised, such as the inability to mow in reverse and an override switch located behind a ride-on mower's driver's seat to force operators to look behind them.

The study examined more than 200,000 injuries to children younger than 18 years old treated in U.S. emergency departments over a 25-year period.

For more information on the study, see www.ajemjournal.com/article/S0735-6757(17)30188-2/fulltext.

• Children's health is a continuing series. This week's article is courtesy of Advocate Children's Hospital. For more information, visit www.advocatechildrenshospital.com.