New Study Reveal that Toddlers are at High Risk of Chemical Eye Burns
Children aged 1 and 2 years have relatively high rates of chemical eye burns, with everyday cleaners a common cause, researchers say.
Access to household cleaning products to blame, experts say
The new study, based on U.S. emergency department visits at specific years of age, refutes the belief that workplace chemicals are the most common cause of these potentially blinding eye injuries.
"Household cleaners are a huge culprit," said Dr. R. Sterling Haring, who led the study. Spray bottles frequently have been implicated in other research, he said.
"The rates among 1-year-olds are 1.5 times higher than the highest rate of [eye] injury for working-age adults," said Haring, a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
The toddlers' injuries occur at home most often and are more common among lower-income families. They also are more common in the South, according to the analysis of 2010-2013 data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample.
Among 900 hospitals, the researchers found more than 144,000 ER visits related to chemical eye burns across all age groups.
"We see chemical eye injuries in the little kids all the time," said Dr. Roberto Warman, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, who wasn't involved in the study.
"It's always the same story. They got access to the cleaners in the house. These are some extremely serious injuries," Warman said.
Overall, the investigators found working-age adults were also at risk for eye burns. When the researchers broke the data down by year of life, 24-year-olds had the highest rate among adults. Among children, 1- and 2-year-olds were injured most often, with this age group 1.5 times more likely to get an eye burn than a 24-year-old, the findings showed.
Where the type of chemical was known, alkaline injuries were more common than acid injuries. Alkaline agents are found in oven cleaners, drain cleaners, chlorine bleach and ammonia products, according to background notes in the study.
Alkaline chemicals can continue to burn into the eye even after contact with the compound, Haring explained. Damage can be blinding, he said.
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