Will there ever be a day when kids don’t want guns as toys? Of course, there is a political angle to that question, but we aren’t going there. We are talking about the dangers of shooting your eye out, whether it be with a old classic like a BB gun, or some of the newer toys doctors are concerned about. So if you are taking advantage of Cyber Monday deals, keep these warnings in mind.
Ralphie in A Christmas Story wanted a BB gun so bad, and that potentially harmless “toy” (potentially being the operative word) is still a big one for ophthalmologists. But there are others to be concerned about these days – like the Air Storm Firetek Bow.
In theory, this toy sounds awesome because you can shoot glowing bands across a dark room, but it’s definitely hazardous according to the pros:
“At short range it packs a punch,” says Dr. Jane Edmond, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Texas Children’s Hospital and a spokeswoman for the American Academy of Ophthalmology. “It can cause bleeding, cataracts, retinal detachment.”
There’s always got to be a balance between safety and fun, because some of these types of toys aren’t really going anywhere unless it gets bad enough to take them off the store shelves. Parents, though it’s impossible to be everywhere at once, should continue focusing on teaching their kids how to play safe and try to keep an eye on them as much as possible (or just don’t buy your kids these kinds of toys). That could work, too.
Here’s a list of WATCH’s (World Against Toys Causing Harm) “10 Worst Toys” of 2014.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
