Injuries that brought a patient to the emergency room were most likely to have involved steps or stairs, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, a resource maintained by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. According to their recent data, which concerned the year 2014, 1.14 million trips to the ER involved the common household fixture.
Coming in at a very close second, less than 4,000 incidents behind stairs, were those slips and trips we take on floors or due to flooring related material, such as wet floors or that uneven tile that sticks up just enough to trip us up and send us flying.
NEISS data only includes injuries where consumer products were involved, sports or recreational activities were a factor, and therefore auto accidents, chronic disease, substance abuse issues and other non-consumer product related incidents are not considered.
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Rounding out the rest of the top 10 reasons we find ourselves under the care of our local emergency physicians included: beds or bed frames, basketball, bikes, football, knives, chairs, exercise and bathtubs.
Interestingly, even though football didn't crack the top five overall, incidents involving the beloved American pastime see a major spike at the beginning of the season in September and October, with combined ER visits for those months totaling 198,139, putting them on par with stairs for that period.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn