Shredded
tongues, fingers and
dogs' tails prompt warnings from the Consumer Product
Safety Commission.
I appears
shredders are making more than documents unrecognizable these days. The fingers of children and the tongues of dogs have joined the ranks of the unidentifiable, and some shredders have even had to accompany their victims to the emergency room.
Over the past five years, consumers have reported more than 50 injuries to humans—most under the age of five-- from home
shredder machines, ranging from scarred middle fingers to crushed and partially-amputated third and fourth fingers.
In one case, a Texas mother watched in shock as her 5-year-old son
caught his finger in a shredder. The child had to be taken to the hospital and, to make matters worse, had to get anesthetized before paramedics could remove the shredder from the child’s crushed hand.
In a related incident, a two-year-old girl in Virginia caught her middle finger in a shredder while her mother was feeding papers into the machine, leaving ugly scars on two fingers of the child’s right hand.
But the injuries were not limited to humans. Five instances have been reported where dogs have been injured when they caught their tongues in the merciless machines.
So what is anybody doing about these potentially dangerous machines? The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it's busy trying to develop new voluntary safety standards, and in the midst of a barrage of lawsuits, one company which sells about 25 percent of shredders nationwide, expresses concern and urges parents not to allow children to use the machine as a toy.
The article’s sidebar offers a few shredder safety tips which include placing shredders in areas not accessible to children or pets, unplugging the machine when not in use and never allowing children to operate a shredder, even with adult supervision.
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