26 Nov 2005
Tiny toys remain major cause of child deaths

OK, there's nothing funny about children dying - but there is something darkly humorous about blaming toys as a "major" cause of these tragedies.

According to the government survey, 16 deaths of children were attributed to toys in 2004. Statistics from the Census Bureau reveal that there were 73 million children in the United s States in 2004. In 2002, the last year for which such statistics are available, the death rate for children under 4 years of age was 31 per 100,000, for kids aged 5 to 14 it was 17 per 100,000. This roughly translates into 16,250 total child deaths.

Personally, I don't think that 1/1000th, or one tenth of one percent, constitutes anything resembling "major". And that's what's funny about this tale - even though I'm not laughing much at such hyperbole anymore, because it's all too common.

Though decades of effort have made toys safer, children still choke on balloons, get strangled by yo-yo water balls and suffer hearing damage from loud playthings, a watchdog group warned Tuesday in its annual toy safety survey.

(link) [CNN]

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