Every three minutes a child in the US is treated in an emergency department for a toy-related injury, according to researchers who found that such incidents rose alarmingly by nearly 40 per cent from 1990 through 2011.
A first-of-its-kind study found that an estimated 3,278,073 children were treated in US emergency departments from 1990 through 2011 for a toy-related injury.
In 2011, a child was treated every 3 minutes for such an injury. Slightly more than half of the injuries happened among children younger than 5 years of age.
The study also found that the rate of injury rose almost 40 per cent during the 22-year period that researchers analysed. Much of that increase was associated with foot-powered scooters.
"A child's job is play, and toys are the tools," said Gary Smith, the study's senior author and director of the Centre for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in US.
Children of different ages face different hazards from toys, Smith said.
Children younger than 3 years of age are at particular risk of choking on small toys and small parts of toys.
During the study period, there were more than 109,000 cases of children younger than 5 swallowing or inhaling "foreign bodies," the equivalent of almost 14 cases per day.
As children get older, injuries involving riding toys increase. Those toys - which include foot-powered scooters, wagons, and tricycles - were associated with 42 per cent of injuries to children 5 to 17 years of age and 28 per cent of injuries to children younger than 5.
Injuries with ride-on toys were 3 times more likely to involve a broken bone or a dislocation than other toys. Falls (46 per cent) and collisions (22 per cent) were the most common ways that children of all ages were injured in association with toys of all categories.
Foot-powered scooters are of special concern. From 2000, after the scooters first became popular, through 2011, there were an estimated 580,037 injuries, or about 1 every 11 minutes. Much of the increase in the overall toy injury rate after 1999 is due to foot-powered scooters.
"The frequency and increasing rate of injuries to children associated with toys, especially those associated with foot-powered scooters, is concerning," said Smith.
"This underscores the need for increased efforts to prevent these injuries to children. Important opportunities exist for improvements in toy safety standards, product design, recall effectiveness, and consumer education," said Smith.
The study was published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.
