Balloons are the very symbol of carefree frolic, a sign of celebration, the embodiment of mirth.
They are also lethal.That's the conclusion of a Children's Hospital study, published last month recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study proved that balloons are a major killer not just of toddlers - with their fondness for testing the world by tasting it - but of kids as old as 14.
Other than food, balloons are the leading cause of choking deaths in children, the study concluded. It also suggested that such things as the latex examination gloves that doctors sometimes inflate like balloons to amuse young patients are killers.
The researchers found that after balloons, the items other than food that pose the greatest risk of choking death are balls, marbles and toys with spherical parts the right size to plug a child's airway. Those included toys that meet current safety standards.
Researchers examined the records of 165 children who had objects removed from their throats at Children's between 1989 and 1993. Most of the objects were coins. But doctors also extracted nuts, fruits, vegetables, seeds, popcorn, hot dogs and chicken bones, as well as hardware, glass and batteries.
At least 131 children died from choking on balloons from 1971 to 1992.
Balloons, long exempt from regulation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, kill more children than any other toy except bikes and riding toys.
The researchers said their findings suggest changes in safety standards for children's toys that could save lives.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission tests whether a toy is small enough to fit into a child's windpipe by passing it through a 1.25-inch-diameter, 2.25-inch-long cylinder, similar in size to a child's windpipe.
But Children's researchers found a number of toys, including rattles and toy characters, that caused choking deaths even though they were larger than the test cylinder. All of those toys had spherical parts on them that were the right size to block the child's airway. The child's gasps for breath sucked the round part in tighter.
The researchers recommended enlarging the minimum diameter for spherical toy parts to 1.75 inches and the diameter of nearly spherical parts to 1.45 inches. They suggest using a test cylinder that is 1.75 inches in diameter and 3 inches long.
- By Sharon Voas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette