FAMILY MEDICINE® COLUMN
By John C. Wolf, D.O.
Associate Professor of Family Medicine®
Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine

[Editor's note: The following column was written five years ago and is being rerun now in the interest of public safety during this summer mowing season.]

CARNIVOROUS LAWN MOWERS COULD CONSUME INNOCENT CHILDREN

Question: My husband and I have been discussing whether we should let our 10-year-old son mow the grass. He is large for his age, so I think he is strong enough to do it. Could you give us some recommendations on how to decide?

Answer: Mowing grass is a ritual of the growing season for city, suburban and rural residents. The drudgery of this task is often assigned to the adolescent children of the family. And I understand your concern. Mowing appears deceptively safe and easy, whether it is done with a push-type or ride-on power mower. But, in reality, it is potentially very dangerous.

The federal government imposed new rules a few years ago that have made push-type power mowers considerably safer. New mowers are required to automatically stop the blade when the handle is released. There are also regulations that make it more difficult for the blade to strike an object and throw it back at the operator. These changes have reduced the risk of injury from thrown objects and the risk of being mangled by a moving mower blade.

Ride-on mowers and lawn tractors are responsible for more injuries than push-type mowers. There are presently about 7.7 million such mowers in use every summer in the United States. These larger and more powerful machines are responsible for more than 19,000 injuries and 75 deaths each year! Of this frightening number of accidents, 25 percent of the injuries and 30 percent of the deaths involved children under the age of 15.

About one-third of these people were injured while the lawn mower was being loaded or unloaded from a trailer, worked on or stored. Another common "non-mowing" injury involves young children playing on parked mowers.

When the mower was in operation, 83 percent of the injuries were to the operator and 17 percent to bystanders or passengers on the mower. The most common types of injuries were children being run over or backed over by another operator and falls from mowers or from carts being pulled by mowers. In nearly 71 percent of these injuries, there were cuts or amputations usually to the hands and lower arms or to the feet and lower legs.

As you are aware, mowing grass is dangerous. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Council on Child and Adolescent Health have made some recommendations about power mowers that should help you decide if your son is old enough to mow your grass. In summary, they recommended that children should not be allowed to:

play in areas adjacent to where mowers are being used.

ride with the mower operator or ride in carts or trailers being towed behind the mower.

play on or around the mower, even with adult supervision.

operate a mower until they are at least 14 years old and have received proper training in the operation of the mower and its safety features.

They also recommended that young children, particularly those under 5, not be allowed outdoors at all while mowing is being done.

In light of these recommendations, I feel you'd be wise to let your son earn his allowance doing other, safer jobs for a few more years. When he is old enough to mow the lawn, I'd strongly encourage you to only use mowers with built-in safety features such as automatic blade brake and neutral-only start.

Family Medicine® is a weekly column. To submit questions, write to John C. Wolf, D.O., Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Grosvenor Hall, Athens, Ohio 45701.