8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18.2007
CONSUMER SAFETY
Popular Crocs linked to escalator injuries
Soft-soled shoes blamed for accidents involving young children, moving staircases
BY SARAH KARUSH ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — At rail stations and shopping malls around the world, reports are popping up of people, particularly young children, getting their toes caught in escalators. The one common theme seems to be the clunky soft-soled clogs known by the name of the most popular brand, Crocs.
One of the nation's largest subway systems — the Washington Metro — has even posted ads warning riders about wearing such shoes on its moving stairways. The ads feature a photo of a crocodile, though they don't mention Crocs by name.
Four-year-old Rory McDermott got a Croc-clad foot caught in an escalator last month at a mall in northern Virginia. His mother managed to yank him free, but the nail on his big toe was almost completely ripped off, causing heavy bleeding.
At first, Rory's mother had no idea what caused the boy's foot to get caught. It was only later, when someone at the hospital remarked on Rory's shoes, that she began to suspect the Crocs and did an Internet search.
"I came home and typed in 'Croc' and 'escalator', and all these cases came up," said Jodi McDermott, of Vienna, Va. "If I had known, those would never have been worn."
According to reports appearing across the United States and as far away as Singapore and Japan, entrapments occur because of two of the biggest selling points of shoes like Crocs; their flexibility and grip. Some report the shoes get caught in the "teeth" at the bottom or top of the escalator and also in the crack between the steps and the side of the escalator.
The reports of serious injuries have all involved young children. Crocs are commonly worn by children as young as 2. The company introduced shoes in its smallest size, 4/5, this past spring.
Niwot, Colo-based Crocs Inc. said it does not keep records of the reasons for customer-service calls. But the company said it is aware of "very few" problems relating to accidents involving the shoes, which are made of a soft, synthetic resin.
"Thankfully, escalator accidents like the one in Virginia are rare," the company said in a statement.
In Japan, the government warned consumers last week that it had received 39 reports of sandals — mostly Crocs or similar products
mountains or small products — getting stuck in escalators from late August through early September. Most of the reports appear to involve small children, some as young as two years old.
Kazuo Motoya of Japan's National Institute of Technology and Evaluation said children may have more escalator accidents in part because they "bounce around when they stand on escalators, instead of watching where they place their feet."
In Singapore, a 2-year-old girl wearing rubber clogs — it's unclear what brand — had her big toe completely ripped off in an escalator accident last year, according to local media reports.
And at the Atlanta airport, a 3-year-old boy wearing Crocs suffered a deep gash across the top of his toes in June. That was one of seven shoe entrapments at the airport since May 1, and all but two of them involved Crocs, said Roy Springer, operations manager for the company that runs the airport terminal.
One U.S. retailer that caters to children, Mattel subsidiary American Girl, has posted signs in three locations directing customers wearing Crocs or flip-flop sandals to use elevators instead of escalators.
During the past two years, so-
called "shoe entrappers" in the Washington subway have gone from being relatively rare to happening four or five times a week in the summer, though none have caused serious injuries, said Dave Lacosse, who overseees the subways' 588 escalators, the most of any U.S. transit system.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said escalator accidents caused more than 10,000 injuries last year, but the agency had few records of specific shoe problems. Only two shoe entrapments have been reported by consumers since the beginning of 2006. One reported in May involved "rubber footwear"
Agency spokesman Ed Kang urged people who have had problems to report them on the commission's Web site.
Crocs officials said they were working with the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation on public education initiatives. But the group's executive director, Barbara Allen, said that was not true.
Allen said a Crocs official called her in September 2006 about possible cooperation, even suggesting the company might put a tag in its shoes with the foundation's Web address. But since that first contact, Crocs has not called, and nobody from the company will return Allen's calls, she said.
Washington Metro's Lacosse and other escalator experts said the best way to prevent shoe entrapments was to face the direction the stairs were moving, keep feet away from the sides and step over the teeth at the end.
Lacosse, of the Washington subway system, said he was personally skittish of Crocs and other soft-soled shoes.
"Would I wear them? No," he said.
"And I tell my children not to wear them either."
Rory Mcdermott, 4, poses for a picture with his Crocs at his home in Vienna, Va., on Sept. 7. The boy's Crock-clad left foot was caught in an escalator on Aug. 30. Crocs and other soft-soled shoes, such as flip-flops, can be prone to escalator entrapment.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BATHROOM ETIQUETTE
Women still cleaning up better than men
BY MARILYNN MARCHIONE AP MEDICAL WRITER
CHICAGO — The gender gap has widened when it comes to hygiene, according to the latest stakeout by the "hand washing police."
One-third of men didn't bother to wash after using the bathroom, compared with 12 percent of women, said the researchers who spy on people in public restrooms.
They reported their latest findings Monday at a meeting of infectious disease scientists.
Two years ago, the last time the survey was done, only one-quarter of men didn't wash, compared with 10 percent of women.
"Guys need to step up to the sink," said Brian Sansoni, spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association, which co-sponsored
the survey and related education campaigns.
The latest study was based on observations last month of more than 6,000 people in four big cities.
Frequent hand washing is the single best thing people can do to avoid getting sick, from colds and the flu to germs lurking in food, doctors say. And a recent Harris Interactive
survey found 92 percent of Americans said they always wash up after using the bathroom.
But researchers for the American Society for Microbiology found that only 77 percent actually do, when it comes to public restrooms. That's a 6 percent decline from a similar study in 2005.
The dirty details:
Carry sanitizer gels and wipes in case the means to wash your hands weren't handy, suggested microbiologist ludy Daly
Telephone surveys by the research firm Harris Interactive showed little shift in attitudes over previous polls in 2003 and 2005. The latest was of 1,001 adults from Aug. 17-20
cent at the Big Apple's Penn and Grand Central train stations.
Women did better, with 84 percent.
"One-third of men didn't bother to wash after using the bathroom, compared with 12 percent of women."
—At San Francisco's Ferry Terminal Farmers Market, 62.5 percent of men lathered up.
Harris Interactive researchers
Nearly three-fourths of Americans said they always wash up after changing a diaper, 78 percent said they do so after handling or eating food; 42 percent after petting a dog or cat. 34
of Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, who led the project.
—New York was Second City to Chicago in cleanliness. In restrooms at the Windy City's Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry, 81 percent of men and women combined washed their hands, compared to 79 per-
Atlanta's Turner Field baseball stadium again was the worst. Only 57 percent of guys there washed up, compared to 95 percent of women.
Aug. 17-20.
"These are a marvelous addition to plain soap and water," she said.
percent after coughing or sneezing and 25 percent after handling money.
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