Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:31:0
David Goodhue - AHN Reporter
Miami, FL (AHN) - The beverage industry's switch to tabs that stay attached to cans more than 30 years ago did little to reduce the risk of swallowing foreign objects, according to a recent study.
The switch from pull tabs to stay-tabs occurred in large part after a 1975 Journal of the American Medical Association report revealed two cases of accidental ingestion and one case of aspiration after the tabs were dropped back into the cans.
The switch was also due to litter concerns and concerns about people stepping on the pull-tabs, researchers with the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center said in a statement. But these researchers said in a recent study published in the journal of the Radiological Society of North America that the newer stay-tabs could be easily removed.
They said in a statement that their hospital identified 19 cases of children, mostly teenagers, accidentally swallowing stay-tabs over a 16-year period.
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