Injury Prevention Program | Maternal & Child Health | Division of Public Health Services | New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

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Injury Prevention Program

Anchor-It to protect your child from furniture and TV tip-over

Protect your child from furniture and TV tip-over today!

Every 30 minutes, tipped furniture or a fallen TV sends an injured child to the emergency room. Get on top of it before they do. Anchor It! Learn how to secure your furniture and TVs to protect children.

Advocates and Community Leaders are collaborating with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPS) to help raise awareness about the dangers of TV and Furniture tip-over incidents in the home. The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Section’s Injury Prevention Program partners with the CPSC to promote child safety.

Preventing tip-over incidents is easy, inexpensive, and only takes 5 minutes. Learn how to secure your TVs and furniture to protect children from tip-over injury, by following these tips:

Televisions that are not wall mounted should be anchored to the wall. Flat screen TV’s should be placed on furniture designed to hold a television, and should be anchored to the wall or the TV stand.
Existing furniture (dressers, bookshelves, etc.) can be anchored with inexpensive anti-tip brackets. New furniture is sold with anti-tip devices. Install them right away.
Remove items that might tempt kids to climb, such as toys, and remote controls, for the top of the TV and furniture.

Injury The Injury Prevention Program's (IPP) mission is to reduce death and disabilities that result from intentional and unintentional injuries. Intentional injuries are those that are self-inflicted or committed by another person, like suicide or sexual assault. Unintentional injuries are those that are considered "accidental" such as poisonings, falls, or motor vehicle crashes. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death in New Hampshire for those aged 1-44 years and have been for many years. Injuries often do not occur by chance and are thus preventable.

Much of the IPP's work is carried out by working together with the Injury Prevention Center at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, the New Hampshire Coalition against Domestic and Sexual Violence, the Injury Surveillance Manager within the Health Statistics and Data Management Section and many community partners. The IPP:

Provides training and technical assistance to professionals and the public.
Promotes and implements prevention programs that work.
Evaluates the impact of these activities.

The IPP also houses the Northern New England Poison Center's New Hampshire Poison Educator.

Video Resources

Please see this public service announcement (PSA) featuring Tomie de Paola, who is author and illustrator of over 250 children’s books, and at 80+ years old is still working and very active. He has an important message for everyone about preventing accidental falls in our older adult population.
Click photo to go to video:

Read video transcript

For more information about Falls Prevention, see your health care provider or visit the NH Falls Risk Reduction Task Force website.
US Consumer Product Safety Commission "10 Tips to Keep Your Baby Safe" - 1 minute and 6 minute versions