DC Child Accident & Safety Blog

Many kids' products -- cribs, high chairs, strollers and more -- last for years and years, which can be a tragic problem if the product turns out to have a hidden danger that only becomes obvious long after purchase. Now there's a law intended to deal with the issue.

As of this summer, manufacturers of children's products have to comply with new safety requirements per the “Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act,” named after a child who was strangled to death in a defective crib. The act requires manufacturers of children products to “establish and maintain a registration card program,” reports Lisa Parker of NBC Chicago. The registration cards will be included with the product and the program will keep records for at least 6 years of consumers who do register. This will facilitate notification of any recalls or safety concerns regarding the product.

The act, which took effect on June 28, 2010, affects the following product categories, according to Parker: Full-size and other cribs, Toddler beds, High chairs, Booster chairs, Hook-on chairs, Bath seats, Gates, Play yards, Stationary activity centers, Infant carriers, Strollers, Walkers, Swings, Bassinets, Cradles, Children’s folding chairs, Changing tables, Infant bouncers, Infant bathtubs, Portable toddler bed rails, and Infant slings.

An announcement of the act going into effect can be found on the Kids In Danger website.

Tiny lithium batteries the size and shape of buttons can kill or cause severe injury in a child who swallows one, doctors are reporting.

The batteries, which are found in remote controls, watches, and other home electronics and toys, cause a chemical reaction when swallowed that can burn through the delicate tissues in the neck. Kids sometimes swallow them when they take apart a toy, find the battery, and think it's candy.

While rare, a death was reported in one child where the battery burned through the esophagus and attacked the aorta. Another child was left with a lifelong whisper from vocal cord damage. Another had to have feeding tubes and multiple surgeries for the damage to the gastric tract.

The journal Pediatrics reports the dangers of ingestion of lithium batteries by infants, which can and has caused deaths, writes Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times.

The lead author of the medical journal article on this subject, Dr. Litovitz, says there is a “tight timeline” in which to rescue children from the injuries caused by lithium ingestion: while the batteries start causing severe damages as quickly as within 2 hours of ingestion, the problem is difficult to be diagnosed because small children cannot verbally communicate, and their symptoms (which can be loss of appetite, vomiting, coughing up blood) are nonspecific.

Pediatricians and parents are working to raise awareness of the dangers of small lithium batteries and to urge manufacturers of electronics to secure the battery in all electronic devices, not just toys. A woman whose 18-month-old daughter died after ingesting a lithium battery said that “there should be warnings on every item the batteries are in. They are in greeting cards and children’s books that talk. They’re everywhere.”

For many children with autistic spectrum disorders who are learning to deal with autistic mannerisms, riding on a swing is a daily therapeutic activity whose effectiveness in improving sensory integration has been documented in scientific studies (see a ScienceDaily story published in April, 2008). However, a recent paper reports a potential hazard in these therapeutic swings that may cause eye injuries, according to the New York Times’ Roni Rabin.

Rabin cites a study appearing in the December 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology that describes two eye injury cases linked to the patients’ use of swings. In both cases, young autistic children presented to the hospital multiple times with small foreign objects in the eye that were found to be metallic fragments. Noticing that the multiple occurrences pointed to a common cause, the paper’s author, Dr. Dean Bonsall of the University of Cincinnati, took extensive history of the boys’ daily activities and discovered their frequent use of a swing.

Dr. Bonsall hypothesized that wear and tear of the swings caused small metal fragments to become dislodged and fall into children’s eyes. He recommended protective eyewear for one of the patients, which prevented further recurrence of the injury.

The study explains that the metallic foreign bodies in the eyes “leave a white scar and may become secondarily infected and lead to vision loss,” therefore requiring timely medical attention. However, autistic children, especially those who are non-verbal, often have difficulty communicating discomfort of foreign objects in their eyes and therefore can fall victim to delayed diagnosis.

Dr. Bonsall encourages parents of autistic children who use swings to give them protective eyewear or wrap the swing mechanism in a cloth.

According to a Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) report, in 2007, there were 22 toy-related deaths in the United States, and in 2008 there were 19. That translates to at least one death every month in from dangerous toys – toys that should provide enjoyment but instead have hidden death traps.

The causes of deaths include, among others, airway obstruction, strangulation, and blunt force. Dangerous toys also account for other serious injuries like laceration and burns, as well as more than 170,000 emergency room visits annually for injuries to children 15 years or younger, according to Don Keenan, Atlanta attorney and child advocate.

Don Keenan has put together a list of Top 10 Dangerous Toys for 2009, available on his website, Keenan’s Kids Foundation. He also has a link to CPSC’s list of recalled toys.

Notably, in Don Keenan’s introduction to the Top 10 Dangerous Toys list, he cautions consumers that many of these dangerous toys, although banned or recalled by the CPSC, still made their way onto the shelves in stores like Target or Walmart. The recalled toys are also easily available on the Internet at sites like eBay or in used toy stores. Other toys that were not recalled also may not be completely safe – in February 2009, the government enacted stringent standards, but Keenan’s Kids Foundation estimates that as many as 5% of toys currently on the market probably do not meet the new safety standards (such as requiring all children products to be tested by a third-party lab to ensure they meet safety standards, and banning the use of phthalates, a plastic softener, or products that contain trace amounts of lead).

Therefore, in this holiday gift-buying season, parents are urged to use extra caution in selecting safe toys, by carefully reading the safety warning label to see if the toy is age-appropriate for your children, and comparing against the CPSC’s recall list.

The FDA announced a voluntary recall of face paints by the distributor of the products, Oriental Trading Co., Omaha, Nebraska, reports Miranda Hitti of WebMD Health News. The recall decision was made after reports of adverse skin reactions from exposures that all occurred on the same day at an organized event. Children exposed to various colors of the face paints experienced adverse skin reactions, including rashes, itchiness, burning sensation and swelling on the area where the product was applied. Results of tests by an FDA laboratory indicated significant microbial contamination in most of the face paints.

The FDA is advising consumers to stop using these face paints, which were manufactured by a Shanghai, China company. The agency has also published a complete list of face paint products in this recall.

The state of California and the city of Los Angeles brought a lawsuit against 17 toymakers a year ago over toxic lead content, and on Dec. 4, settled with nine of the defendants, as reported by Los Angeles Times’ Marc Lifsher. The settlement terms include a $1.8 million payment from the nine toy companies, as well as speedy actions to reduce level of lead in their products, including “toys, lunchboxes and novelty items imported from China and other developing nations.”

Lead has long been known to be toxic to human bodies, threatening the cognitive and nervous system and causing blood and brain disorders. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, lead poisoning is especially dangerous for children under 6 “because they are undergoing rapid neurological and physical development.” And even the slightest trace of lead could prove toxic; the Times article quoted Los Angeles City Attorney Delgadillo’s comment that “scientists have determined that there is no safe level of lead.”

The agreement reached between the prosecutors and the toymakers requires compliance with new federal lead standards beginning on Dec. 1, which “will safeguard California’s children from lead-contaminated toys this Christmas,” said California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who filed the lawsuit.

The $1.8 million payout from the nine companies includes an amount of $550,000 that will go into a "fund to test toys and improve outreach during future recalls."

A newly-released study, done over the course of six years by researchers at Cornell University, finds that even small amounts of lead in children's blood (below CDC guidelines for acceptable levels) make reduced IQ much more likely. This correlation holds true even when other factors that affect IQ--such as other environmental factors or genetics--are accounted for.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that the maximum allowable blood-lead level is 10 micrograms per deciliter. But the new Cornell study focused on kids with between 0 and 10 micrograms per deciliter, and found that those in the 0-5 range had average IQs of about five points higher than those in the 5-10 range. The unavoidable conclusion is that even when lead poisoning is less than what the CDC deems harmful, it can still have significant negative effects on children's developing brains.

Those who are poor are at greater risk for lead poisoning, as lead is often found in the paint of old or poorly-maintained buildings. Lead poisoning has been in the news lately, because of the Mattel recall and other toy safety issues. This very morning, New York State recalled children's jewelry from stores including Michael's and Big Lots because they contained hazardous levels of lead. It is important to remember that houses are the most common source of lead-related brain damage.

The researchers involved in this study had previously published another, similar study in 2003. They found then, as they did again now, that blood-lead levels are related "inversely and significantly" to IQ. Clearly, this is a serious problem that needs to be recognized and addressed.

Mattel has had to issue a second recall of its toys, right on the heels of its first, thanks to hazardous amounts of lead-based paint in the toys. This recall shines an embarrassing light on Mattel's standards for consumer safety and public accountability.

If your child owns one of the 7.3 million playsets or 1.5 million toy cars recalled by Mattel in the United States, call Mattel at 1-800-916-4997 for the cars or 1-888-597-6597 for the other toys or visit Mattel's website.

Here's what you can do about protecting your child from lead paint:

-Keep in mind that children under 5 are more vulnerable to lead poisoning

-Test children for lead exposure

-Keep in mind that buildings, particularly older ones and those in low-income areas, are a much more common source of lead poisoning than toys.