To trampoline or not to trampoline
The last few days I have seen a bunch of stories about trampoline use at home. As a home trampoline owner, I have worried a bit about the safety of my kids and their friends. They all love the trampoline, and often talk me into playing “popcorn popping”, which involves an adult jumping around a bit while they all sit like popcorn kernals and get tossed around. Its great fun. Is it dangerous too?
Here is an excerpt from the recent press release about a study that was done:
Emergency room visits due to trampoline injuries have almost doubled since the early 1990s, new research shows.
An estimated 75,000 children are injured each year, and 91 percent of those injuries occur on backyard trampolines, said one of the study’s authors, Dr. James Linakis, a pediatric emergency physician at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, R.I.
“This problem has not gone away,” said Linakis, who added, “The home environment and even the school environment are not the place for trampolines. While not a popular idea, trampolines are really only appropriate in very select, heavily supervised environments,” such as a gymnastics school.
The findings were presented Sunday at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
My one question which the articles left me asking was how many more home trampolines are there today? Sure, the injuries have gone up, but if the number of home trampolines has gone up by a factor of 10, and injuries only doubled, then it seems the home trampoline industry has been making much safer equipment.
I’m not really sure the answer to that. I do see them *everywhere*. And the safety nets they have enclosing the whole thing sure makes them seem safer.
I still haven’t decided whether to keep the trampoline or get rid of it. Part of the problem is I am not sure how to get rid of it. 700 pounds of steel pipe in 12 foot curved sections doesn’t fit into a garbage can too easily.