Category: children

Product safety recall: Marlee Watch Co — Children’s Timepiece Watches | Product Safety Australia

by Paul, posted in Battery, children, LinkedIn, Product Safety, Recalls

What are the defects?

The backing of the watch may detach if dropped.

What are the hazards?

Small parts, including the battery can be exposed if the back is removed. If young children gain access to the button batteries and ingest them, they may suffer internal burn injuries, which can result in serious illness and even death. In addition, the batteries may pose a choking hazard to young children.

 

Source: Marlee Watch Co — Children’s Timepiece Watches | Product Safety Australia

David Schwebel – product injury prevention through predicting child behaviour

by Paul, posted in children, Deaths, Education, LinkedIn, Product Safety

Interview podcast and transcript with Professor David Schwebel of the University of Alabama on product injury prevention through predicting child behaviour.

“Children naturally learn about the world by trying things and therefore we have to assume that our products will be tried and explored and sometimes used improperly.”

Source: Podcast interview – David Schwebel – Product Safety Solutions

Fidget spinner recalled for failing the button battery test

by Paul, posted in Battery, children, Compliance Engineering, LinkedIn, News, Product Safety, Recalls

“Fidget Spinners help people channel their nervous energy into a toy conducive to one-hand fidgeting. Think of them as the modern equivalent of a stress ball. But a model … that features LED lights has been recalled for failing to conceal its button battery securely. Infants who swallow a button battery are exposed to serious health risks, warns Product Safety Australia.”

Source: Fidget spinner recalled for failing the button battery test

RELATED ARTICLES:

Fidget spinners probe launched in WA after reported eye injury, battery size concerns:

“An investigation has been launched …after an 11-year-old boy in Victoria reportedly suffered a serious eye injury from one of the models. A 10-year-old girl in the United States has also reportedly swallowed a small part of one of the models.”

Source: “http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-19/fidget-spinners-probe-launched-in-wa/8540730

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Fidget spinners banned in schools after boy almost loses eye – Kidspot

“He threw the spinner up a little higher,” Molly said, “and he didn’t manage to catch the spinner but it came down and clipped the corner of his eye and crunch. He was very lucky not to lose his eyesight let alone his eyeball.”

Source: http://www.kidspot.com.au/parenting/real-life/in-the-news/warnings-over-fidget-spinners-after-aussie-school-boy-nearly-loses-his-eye

Are Fidget Spinners Bad for You? Texas Girl Has Surgery After Swallowing Metal Toy Part

A young girl aged 10 in Houston was taken “to the emergency room after the girl swallowed part of her fidget spinner. (She) had put a metal piece of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it, and it went down her throat. (She was taken) to the Texas Childrens Hospital, where an X-ray revealed the part—called a bushing—was stuck in her esophagus. The girl had to have surgery to “endoscopically locate and remove the object,” which was about the size of a quarter…

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/fidget-spinners-injuries-kids-choking-611491

Grandmother warns popular toy could be a choking hazard | WSB-TV

She had just bought her 3 year old grandson the Fidget Spinner, and he and his mother were riding with her in the car. “He was playing with it going down the road,” then the child’s mother noticed the spinner had come apart and the child had the parts in his hand, including a small battery that lights up.

Source: http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/grandmother-warns-popular-toy-could-be-a-choking-hazard/517930032

 

Death of child from falling television – Coroner’s Report (West Australia)

by Paul, posted in accidents and injuries, children, Compliance Engineering, Deaths, Inquests, LinkedIn, Product Safety

Two-year old Jasmine died at the Emergency Department of Fremantle Hospital on 11 February 2013 due to an injury to her chest caused by a television set falling on her.

She had been known to climb the wooden cabinet in the family room of her home to get closer to the television set that was placed upon it. While the her mother was temporarily out of the room, the child climbed on top of the 65 cm high wooden cabinet and then fell backwards to the floor, with the 37 inch LED television set also falling and landing on top of her. As a result she sustained a fatal injury to her chest.

The television set had been purchased new from the store in 2010 when Jasmine was about three months old. It weighed 15.8 kilograms. The heaviest part was at the base, being the part that impacted upon Jasmine’s torso.

Jasmine weighed approximately 21 kilograms and was 80 centimetres in height. She would not have been able to reach and pull the television set down by standing next to the cabinet.

Her death was preventable, and the inquest focused on drawing the public’s attention to the potential risk posed to a young child of a television set becoming unstable and toppling over.

The State Coroner found that she died from a chest injury, and death occurred by way of accident. The State Coroner highlighted the dangers of not adequately securing television sets to a fixed point.

Full report PDF available from the Source: Inquest into the Death of Jasmine Lilian CAMMERILLI

Woolworths Limited — Halloween Flashing Tumbler and Goblet (Australia)

by Paul, posted in Battery, children, LinkedIn, Product Safety, Recalls

Source: Woolworths Limited — Halloween Flashing Tumbler and Goblet

What are the defects?

The battery cover can be opened without the use of a tool. This could allow young children to access the button batteries inside.

What are the hazards?

Ingestion of button cell batteries by young children can cause internal burns which may lead to serious injury or death.

Report on Furniture Stability | Kids In Danger (USA)

by Paul, posted in children, LinkedIn, Product Safety

A child dies from tipping furniture, appliances or TVs every two weeks. The statistics for tip-over incidents have grown over the last decade, yet there has been little reform to safety standards. [The] report, Furniture Stability: A review of data and testing  … analyzed data of dresser and chest tip-overs and revealed testing results for 19 furniture units. Findings of the data analysis include:

  • Two-year-olds are the age group most affected by tip-overs, and are most likely to be killed.
  • Head injuries (37%) were the most common category of injury.
  • Almost all (98.7%) of head injuries are related to a television tipping over on a child.

Source: KID and Shane’s Foundation Release Report on Furniture Stability | Kids In Danger

She woke in a pool of blood: hospital misdiagnosed baby who swallowed button battery, coroner hears

by Paul, posted in children, Compliance Engineering, LinkedIn, Product Safety

What we would give to have another chance to hear your voice, to feel your kiss and to see you grow,” wrote the Rees family in Isabella’s tribute.

At the age of one, Isabella swallowed a button battery. No one knows precisely when. It lodged in her oesophagus, and made her sick.

Her parents took her to hospital several times over two weeks, but staff didn’t pick up the presence of the battery until it was too late, the Coroners Court heard on Thursday.

She died in the morning of February, 4, 2015, from cardiac arrest, on the operating table at Sunshine Hospital.

Source: She woke in a pool of blood: hospital misdiagnosed baby who swallowed button battery, coroner hears

Child safety – button or coin batteries (Ingestion risks and preventative measures)

by Paul, posted in children, Compliance Engineering, LinkedIn, Product Safety

This presentation was written by Paul W Robinson, Australia, and presented to the IEEE Symposium on Product Compliance Engineering (ISPCE) in Chicago in May 2015. It covers the identification of risks to children associated with the use of button or coin batteries or cells, the prevalence and severity of harm to children worldwide, and what can be done to mitigate the severity and frequency of injuries. An author’s copy of the PDF version of the submitted presentation is available at the link.

via Child safety – button or coin batteries (Ingestion risks and preventative measures) | paulspiece.com.

Mortality and Morbidity: Children’s Accidents and Injurie Australian Social Trends, 2005

by Paul, posted in accidents and injuries, children, LinkedIn, News Snippets that catch my eye

Boys are more likely than girls to experience and die as a result of an injury. While half of all children are boys (at 30 June 2001, 51% of 1-14 year olds were boys), nearly two-thirds of injury deaths for this age group between 1999 and 2003 were boys (62%). This difference between girls and boys in relation to injury and deaths exists regardless of the child’s age, and across all OECD countries.

via 4102.0 – Australian Social Trends, 2005.