Author Topic: At last the scourge is stopped! (Read 1233 times)

Pei · « **on:** April 07, 2004, 09:51:44 PM »

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3609723.stm

Baby walkers outlawed in Canada
Baby walkers are designed for infants who can sit up, but not yet walk
Canada has become the first country in the world to ban the sale, advertising and import of baby walkers.

"Canadians must know about the dangers posed to infants through the use of baby walkers," said Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew.

A voluntary ban on the walkers - essentially baby chairs with wheels - has existed since 1989, but continuing injuries prompted the outright ban.

The most common accident occurs when babies fall down stairs.

They have also been reports of infants being able to reach dangerous objects that would otherwise have been out of reach, said the minister.

Distance and speed

Baby walkers are designed for infants who are able to sit up but not yet able to walk.

They allow them to propel themselves around using their legs.

But baby walkers also allow babies to travel distances and at speeds their parents may not be accustomed to.

Babies have been injured and killed falling down stairs, and even falling into swimming pools.

Between 1990 and 2002, the ministry said, there were 1,935 reports of infants being injured using the walkers.

The health ministry said it had determined that young children "do not have the necessary skills, reflexes or cognitive abilities to safely make use of these products".

Though many companies have adhered to a voluntary ban on walkers, said the ministry, it had become apparent that walkers were still being sold at garage sales, online and by street vendors.

Safety inspectors would work with first-time offenders found in possession of baby walkers to dispose of them, a ministry spokeswoman told BBC News Online.

Repeat offences could be punished with a fine or seizure of the walkers, the spokeswoman said.

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May be they should outlaw children as well? After all 100% of childhood accidents happen to kids.

Capt. Pork · « **Reply #1 on:** April 07, 2004, 10:52:21 PM »

Why stop there?

Isn't sex, which leads to children, the ultimate culprit?

I say ban male/female attraction! Attack this problem at the source!

Capt. Pork · « **Reply #2 on:** April 07, 2004, 11:24:44 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by GScholz
Ah, I had a fun childhood. We had dangerous toys back then. Bow and arrows, dartguns with hard plastic darts not the foam crap you get nowadays, swords you could poke your eye out with, and much more. How can evolution work if you don't let Darwin kill off the mortally stupid?

Darwinism is lost on us. Look how many people on this board have survived to breeding age--the majority of them having reached that age with BB guns and stamped steel Tonka Trucks in their arsenals.

Nilsen · « **Reply #3 on:** April 08, 2004, 05:39:10 AM »

Ive always belived that kids should be allowed to fall over, get into fights and get dirty.

I will very soon find out if ill let it happen in real life when I become a parent in about 3 weeks.

101ABN · « **Reply #4 on:** April 08, 2004, 08:04:30 AM »

maybe we should just put our children in padded rooms... or a bubble maybe. hell we can live like the characters in final destination. babys in walkers falling down stairs (childgate maybe).... falling in swimming pools (duh, dont leave your children unattended). what is going on in this world? talking about speed these kids can travel in a walker??? all i can say is " take a deep breath...... let it out.......THINK." ha ha

101ABN · « **Reply #5 on:** April 08, 2004, 08:05:25 AM »

[I will very soon find out if ill let it happen in real life when I become a parent in about 3 weeks. [/B][/QUOTE]

congrats, being a parent is great... even in the rough times.

lazs2 · « **Reply #6 on:** April 08, 2004, 08:12:02 AM »

Ahh... I see that we are now crossing lines that even the liberals find distasteful...

but why? don't you think your government knows what is best for you? Think of the lives it will save.. No? How bout the expense it will save every taxpayer who no longer has to pay for the thousands of babies that smack their little heads and are turned into turnips for the rest of their lives in some hospital ward?

Yet you think it is fine for the government to make us wear seatbelts and helmets and not smoke in a bar owned by a private citizen... you think the government has the right to keep you from owning and carrying a firearm even tho you have committed no crime with it?

lazs

Curval · « **Reply #7 on:** April 08, 2004, 08:16:34 AM »

Are you guys suggesting that any and all products produced, even by the most unsavoury companies, should be freely bought and sold in the marketplace?

There has to be some sort of regulatory process to determine if something is dangerous...surely.

Let's assume a company made a product like Play Dough but if ingested it caused severe brain damage.

Hands off? Would it be a nanny law to make that product illegal?

101ABN · « **Reply #8 on:** April 08, 2004, 08:41:40 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by lazs2
Ahh... I see that we are now crossing lines that even the liberals find distasteful...

but why? don't you think your government knows what is best for you? Think of the lives it will save.. No? How bout the expense it will save every taxpayer who no longer has to pay for the thousands of babies that smack their little heads and are turned into turnips for the rest of their lives in some hospital ward?

Yet you think it is fine for the government to make us wear seatbelts and helmets and not smoke in a bar owned by a private citizen... you think the government has the right to keep you from owning and carrying a firearm even tho you have committed no crime with it?

lazs

children hurt themselves everyday. i honestly have never heard of a child having such a terrible wreck in a walker before. they have a very wide base and they cant tip them over, they cant achieve such speeds that they can kill themselves or even get hurt for that matter, unlike a car. if we were to ban items that can be considered dangerous, then there goes the coffee table, high beds, hard wood floors, concrete for sidewalks...ect. items are made with age requirements posted on them. if they dont have a warning and i feel that they are dangerous i dont buy them. its at the parents discression. as for a ban on smoking in a bar, that is just plan BS (i know that it is happening, its just BS)

Curval · « **Reply #9 on:** April 08, 2004, 09:03:37 AM »

101ABN - It is stairs that are REALLY dangerous with respect to these walkers....and pools, but less so IMHO.

Swoop · « **Reply #10 on:** April 08, 2004, 10:10:46 AM »

Well.......'scuse me for stating the bloody obvious.......but if any parent is going to give their infant the ability to move around at a greatly increased speed, surely said parent is also going to have the wherewithal to restrict the places said infant can get to.

Apparently not. 1,935 Canadians between 1990 and 2002 didn't think to anyway. If baby walkers had been outlawed at the time these accidents would have only been postponed a few months until the kid could throw themselves down the stairs without being wheels assisted.

But then again, for a 12 year measurement the figure ain't that high.

Not that I'm not against baby walkers, the kid can damn well stand up and walk, lazy little git, I didn't have bloody wheels when I was a kid and I turned out all right.

AKIron · « **Reply #11 on:** April 08, 2004, 10:20:10 AM »

Probably a lot more Canadians are killed in car accidents. Should outlaw those too while they're at it, just too dangerous.

lazs2 · « **Reply #12 on:** April 08, 2004, 11:10:57 AM »

There will allways be someone dumb enough to defend every single nanny law that comes down the pike..

I thank some of you for proving my point.

Swoop... yes.. I believe you have stated the obvious but reading the thread should prove to you that the obvious is often not so to the liberal.

It takes a government to raise a child.. parents are not smart enough or good enough... just ask hillary.

lazs

Maverick · « **Reply #13 on:** April 08, 2004, 11:12:51 AM »

Frankly I think they went about this all wrong. If it is stairs and pools that are the problem, THEY should have been banned. Why punish the kids and parents in single story homes without pools?

Pretty soon there wil be so many govt. regs like this in Canada that there wil have to be govt. paid nannies for parents to insure they are complying with all of them.

midnight Target · « **Reply #14 on:** April 08, 2004, 11:18:05 AM »

My God!

That's over 161 Canadians a year for 12 years! That only leaves about 14 total healthy live Canadians. Maybe we should put them on the endangered list!

OTOH.. Baby walkers are just tools for lazy parents.