Warning over falling TOILET SEATS which send more than 1,000 boys to hospital every year

Number of genital injuries related to toilet seats rises by 100 per year

97 per cent of victims are younger than seven but a minority are adults



Men have been warned that falling toilet seats pose a growing hazard, with the number of genital injuries caused by bathroom equipment rising every year.



Researchers in the U.S. found that the number of emergency room visits for toilet-related injuries to the penis soared by 100 visits each year between 2002 and 2010.



Most of the injuries happen when boys are learning how to use the toilet while standing up and the seat falls unexpectedly - although a few adults did get snagged by the seat as well.



Hidden danger: Toilet seats are responsible for more than 1,000 genital injuries every year

'It's a toddler basically potty training who doesn't have the most advanced motor skills, and they just don't have the reflexes to move fast enough,' said Benjamin Breyer of the University of California, San Francisco, the study's lead author.



The researchers had previously found that about 16,000 men and women are sent to U.S. emergency rooms with genital injuries every year.



But Dr Breyer's team was 'pretty surprised' to learn that one in 30 genitourinary injuries showing up to the ER involved toilets.

'To us, that was striking,' he said. 'That was unexpected. You think of the bathroom as a safe place.'



Using a national database of injuries caused by household products that were treated in American ERs between 2002 and 2010, the researchers found 13,175 genital injuries related to the toilet or toilet seat.



About 68 per cent were so-called crush injuries, which is when the penis gets trapped between the seat and the bowl. Of those, about 97 per cent were in children seven years old and younger. Only five adults were caught by falling lids.



Pain: The vast majority of those hurt by toilet seats are young boys (picture posed by models)

The researchers write in the journal BJU International that the number of 'crush injuries' reported increased by 100 every year, with 1,707 ER visits reported in 2010.



'This data can be the tip of the iceberg, because there could be kids who are hurt whose parents don't bring them to the ER. So this could be an underestimation of how often this is going on,' Dr Breyer said.



Falling toilet seats do not seem to cause too much physical damage, but there may be some lingering mental trauma.



'The vast majority of these injuries were treated in the ER and then sent home,' Dr Breyer added. 'My sense is that it's just a very traumatic and unpleasant experience to go through, but it would be important to know that there is no damage that happens to the penis or patient.'



One cause of the increase may be the popularity of heavy wood and ceramic toilet seats, both of which have seen rising sales over recent years.



'They may be more comfortable for people so the manufactures are making more of them and we are seeing more of these injuries,' Dr Breyer said.

