If it hadn't been for last week's ferocious thunderstorm and comedian Lewis Black's latest appearance on the Daily Show, I probably wouldn't have given much thought to Sen. Bob Menendez's press conference on beach umbrella safety in Manasquan Monday.

The afternoon of the storm, I was on my back deck reading when the sky suddenly turned eerily dark. I took my patio umbrella out of its stand and lay it flat on the deck to keep it from flying into my neighbor's yard. Moments later, the winds began to kick up. Soon thereafter, watching from inside my house, I saw the umbrella skid along my deck like a harpoon at warp speed.

Two nights later, Black was on Comedy Central doing a bit on the perils of the beach. It included video of ghastly shark attacks, flesh-eating bacteria and wind-propelled beach umbrellas.

Black's bit was funny. But there's nothing amusing about stiff sea breezes turning beach umbrellas into projectiles.

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Back in May, Menendez sent a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission asking it to make recommendations about safer beach umbrellas and to issue warnings about products that could prove dangerous on the beach. Citing the commission's own statistics, Menendez pointed out that more than 31,000 people were treated at hospitals for umbrella-related injuries from 2008 to 2017.

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At the press conference, Menendez said he was unhappy with the response to his letter from acting commission chair Ann Marie Buerkle, who wrote that her staff did not feel safety standards would substantially reduce injuries caused by beach umbrellas. “The commission made an Instagram post about unsecured umbrellas, but we need much more action than that,” Menendez said.

Menendez recounted several tragic incidents involving beach umbrellas, including one last summer in Seaside Heights. An aluminum umbrella, driven by the wind, pierced the right ankle of a woman from London. Fire crews had to use a bolt cutter to remove it before she was taken to a hospital. In 2016, a 55-year-old woman was killed when a beach umbrella lifted by wind on Virginia Beach impaled her in the chest

The anecdotes only tell part of the story. Between 2010 and 2018, an estimated 2,800 people were treated for beach umbrella injuries at emergency rooms, Menendez said. That number doesn't surprise me. I've had to dodge flyaway umbrellas myself. And I've had to retrieve my own, red-faced, on someone else's beach blanket twice.

Beach umbrellas, if not properly buried and secured in the sand, are weapons. The CSPC should treat them as such. The commission should develop an education campaign around umbrella safety and establish rigorous product safety standards.

Randy Bergmann, a Westfield native and lifelong resident of New Jersey, has been covering the state as a reporter, editor and opinion page editor for four decades. Contact Bergmann at rbergmann@app.com or 732-643-4034.