Treacherous Tea Cozies, Trousers Plague Great Britain

Insight on the News, July 30, 2001 by Stephen Goode

It's often said that the United States and Great Britain are two nations separated only by a common language. But there may be another degree of difference, and that's the decidedly different causes of accidents. For the people offers as evidence some comments taken from "Danger! Don't Get Too Cozy With That Teapot," an article by science correspondent Mark Henderson in a June issue of The Times of London.

Henderson warns readers that tea cozies have become a "growing threat to human health" in Great Britain. "The toll of accidents caused by humble teapot-warmers almost doubled in a single year," he reveals, ominously.

Not mad-cow disease or irate soccer fans. Tea cozies! The injuries most often involve scalding when the would-be tea drinker attempts to pick up the teapot by its cover rather than its handle. Much of the rest of the increase in tea-cozy incidents occurred when the pot covers were tripped over after having been dropped on slick kitchen tiles or "lino" (Brit for linoleum).

Other maimers and killers in the United Kingdom were almost equally surprising. Citing a recent report from the Department of Trade and Industry, Henderson warned Britons to be much more cautious while getting dressed in the morning. The number of folks injured by trousers, socks and tights climbed by almost 1,800 in 1999.

Trouser-related injuries alone climbed to 5,945 -- up from 5,137 --the report warned, accounting for almost five times as many injuries as chain saws during the same time period (1,207). Socks and tights caused 10,773 injuries, up from 9,843. The report said that falls resulting from attempting to dress too quickly were the major source of these injuries, followed closely by messy bedrooms.

Not to worry, however. With characteristic British insouciance, Jane Eason of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents put everything in perspective by noting, "It seems odd there are so many more accidents involving trousers than chain saws, but everyone has trousers and hardly anyone has chain saws."