Going Down – How Elevators Harm the Elderly

According to Health Day, over 2,600 senior citizens suffer serious elevator-related injuries each year in the United States according to the first large-scale study of these events. [embed_youtubep>Slips, trips and falls accounted for more than half of the injuries, and about one-third were caused by elevator doors closing on a person. The third most common cause of injuries were those related to the wedging of walkers in elevator door openings, the researchers reported in the [embed_youtubei>Journal of Trauma Injury, Infection and Critical Care[embed_youtube/i>. Half of the injuries were injuries such as sprains and bruises.[embed_youtubebr />[embed_youtube/p> [embed_youtubep>Greg Steele, associate professor of epidemiology in the department of public health at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said this: “Elevator open buttons should be made twice the size of the other elevator buttons so they are not hard to find by passengers who want to stop the door from closing on an approaching individual. This would be very inexpensive to change because electronics don’t have to be altered, just the button. Certainly all newly installed or updated elevators should have such buttons.”[embed_youtube/p>[embed_youtubep>Heck, it’s not just the elderly who get jammed by closing doors. We have all experienced that at one point or another. There has got to be a better way to open the doors than putting your arm out to stop them.[embed_youtubebr />[embed_youtube/p>