A July 2026 report based on the CPSC National Electronic Injury Surveillance System data found that stairs, flooring, carpets, and rugs are the home items that send Americans to the ER. A new study by George Salinas Injury Lawyers analyzed official ER data to see which items around the house cause the most injuries.
Table of Contents
Key Findings
- Stairs and flooring send the most people to the ER, accounting for nearly 3.6 million visits, with patients 65 and older making up over half of those cases.
- Household items sending the most kids to the hospital are mattresses & bunk beds, which account for roughly 196K ER trips from children under four.
- Bathroom-related incidents have the highest hospitalization rates, with roughly a third of injuries requiring admission.
The research drew on data from the CPSC’s NEISS system, gathering information from almost 100 hospital emergency rooms and using national statistics to represent ER visits across the entire country. Each injury was assigned a primary product category based on CPSC coding rules, establishing which home appliances were the main contributing factor. The report ranks 17 household item categories based on total estimated ER visits.
Here are the 10 home products that send the most Americans to the hospital
| Product category | ER visits (2025) | Most-affected age | % aged 0-4 | % aged 65+ | % hospitalized |
| Stairs, flooring, carpets & rugs | 3,599,167 | 80+ | 5.5% | 51.2% | 27.2% |
| Beds, mattresses & bunk beds | 1,065,786 | 80+ | 18.4% | 48.8% | 23.4% |
| Chairs, couches & recliners | 737,650 | 0-9 | 18.7% | 44.8% | 20.4% |
| Bathtubs, showers & toilets | 586,986 | 80+ | 4.8% | 48.0% | 26.4% |
| Tables, dressers & cabinets | 492,579 | 0-9 | 19.6% | 32.4% | 11.4% |
| Knives & cutlery | 385,838 | 20-29 | 1.1% | 11.0% | 1.7% |
| Doors, windows & glass (incl. mirrors) | 375,994 | 0-9 | 11.9% | 20.6% | 9.2% |
| Dishware, glassware & cookware | 221,792 | 0-9 | 12.5% | 16.2% | 7.2% |
| Treadmills, weights & exercise bikes | 204,258 | 20-29 | 3.8% | 15.5% | 7.3% |
| Ladders & step stools | 196,644 | 60-69 | 2.4% | 33.3% | 23.0% |
You can access the complete research findings here. Data visualization is available in the research file along with HTML code.
1. Stairs, flooring, carpets and rugs
- ER visits in 2025: 3.6M
- Most affected age: 80+
- Aged 0-4: 5.5%
- Aged 65+: 51.2%
- Hospitalized: 27.2%
Stairs and flooring cause the most emergency room visits, along with the highest hospitalization rate. From 3.6 million ER visits in just one year, over 900K of them required a hospital stay. People aged 65 and older are the most vulnerable group for such injuries, accounting for over half of the cases. Children are safer in these situations, but ER visits from stair falls make up 5% of total injury records.
2. Beds, mattresses and bunk beds
Second place for total ER visits goes to beds, mattresses and bunk beds, which sent roughly 1.1 million people to the hospital in 2025. Nearly half of those injured were 65 or older, and about one in four cases were serious enough to require hospital admission. Kids under four accounted for roughly 20% of visits, making beds and mattresses the second most-dangerous furniture item for children.
3. Chairs, couches & recliners
With about 738K emergency room trips, chairs, couches and recliners take third place. Here the pattern shifts. Children under nine are the most affected, and kids under 4 make up roughly 138K of visits, nearly three times the number seen with children’s furniture. About one in five cases leads to hospitalization, putting this category among the top five for admission rates.
4. Bathtubs, showers & toilets
Fourth place belongs to bathtubs, showers and toilets, which account for roughly 587K ER incidents. Again, close to half of those injured were 65 or older, and more than one in four cases ended with a hospital stay, the second highest hospitalization rate in the top five. Wet floors after a shower, losing balance while stepping out of the tub, or grabbing a towel bar that pulls out of the wall can all lead to falls, and older adults are especially vulnerable to serious injuries from these types of accidents.
5. Tables, dressers & cabinets
Tables, dressers, and cabinets round out the top five with about 493K emergency room visits. Children under nine are the most frequently injured, and children under four are involved in nearly one in five cases. Young kids climb on furniture to reach something, pull open drawers and use them as steps, or tip over a dresser that is not anchored to the wall, all of which can lead to falls or injuries. At the same time, hospitalization occurs in about one in nine ER trips, lower than the categories above.
Attorney George Salinas commented on the topic:
“Household products do not have to be defective to be dangerous. Stairs, bathtubs, and beds injure millions of people every year while working exactly as intended. The legal system handles cases where a product fails. It has almost nothing to say about products that succeed at being hazardous. A wet bathroom floor is not a design flaw. A toddler climbing a dresser is not a manufacturing error. The law stops where ordinary danger begins, and that is where most household injuries happen.”
This article was written for WHN by George Salinas Injury Lawyers, who built this practice on one belief: no injured family should lose their case just because no one told them they had rights.
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