ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms
By Rob Waters, Bloomberg | May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 children went to hospital emergency
rooms in 2004 after taking a stimulant used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, most because of accidental overdoses, a US
government report suggests.

About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went to emergency rooms
had serious heart or blood pressure events including palpitations,
chest pain, or fainting, said the report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other cases involved children
who accidentally took someone else's medication, the report found.

The researchers reviewed emergency room visits at 64 hospitals between
August 2003 and 2005, finding 188 events related to attention deficit
drugs. From that number, they projected that there were probably 3,075
visits nationally among both children and adults. The review is made
as US regulators weigh whether to require a stronger warning on the
drugs about a possible link to sudden death and heart risks.

``Clinicians should recognize that unintentional overdoses of
stimulant medications are an important cause of injury to patients,"
said the CDC's Adam Cohen who, with colleagues, wrote a research
letter on the report published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine.

It was the first time the CDC collected such data, Cohen said, so he
was unable to say whether such problems were new or how common they
might have been.

The survey was prompted by reports of side effects among the estimated
3.3 million children and nearly 1.5 million adults who take the drugs.
Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were
reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 1999 through 2003.
Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart
attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had
prior heart problems.

In February, an advisory committee to the FDA narrowly recommended
that ADHD drugs -- such as Adderall and Adderall XR, which are made by
Shire Plc ; Strattera by Eli Lilly and Co. ; and Ritalin and Focalin
by Novartis AG -- include a ``black box" warning about the heart risks
..

But in March, a different panel of advisers concluded that such a
strong warning was not necessary and might dissuade doctors and
patients from prescribing or using the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly
Rawlings said she could not say when the FDA would make a decision on
the warning.

``This is what I was concerned about at the first advisory committee,
that what we were seeing was the tip of the iceberg," Steven Nissen,
interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic, said. Material from the Associated Press was used in
this report.


http://www.BreastImplantAwareness.or...Watch.htm#ADHD



..

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com ***

"Rich" wrote in message
...

Ilena Rose wrote in message
...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms
By Rob Waters, Bloomberg | May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 children went to hospital emergency
rooms in 2004 after taking a stimulant used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, most because of accidental overdoses, a US
government report suggests.

About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went to emergency rooms
had serious heart or blood pressure events including palpitations,
chest pain, or fainting, said the report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other cases involved children
who accidentally took someone else's medication, the report found.

The researchers reviewed emergency room visits at 64 hospitals between
August 2003 and 2005, finding 188 events related to attention deficit
drugs. From that number, they projected that there were probably 3,075
visits nationally among both children and adults. The review is made
as US regulators weigh whether to require a stronger warning on the
drugs about a possible link to sudden death and heart risks.

``Clinicians should recognize that unintentional overdoses of
stimulant medications are an important cause of injury to patients,"
said the CDC's Adam Cohen who, with colleagues, wrote a research
letter on the report published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine.

It was the first time the CDC collected such data, Cohen said, so he
was unable to say whether such problems were new or how common they
might have been.

The survey was prompted by reports of side effects among the estimated
3.3 million children and nearly 1.5 million adults who take the drugs.
Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were
reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 1999 through 2003.
Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart
attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had
prior heart problems.

In February, an advisory committee to the FDA narrowly recommended
that ADHD drugs -- such as Adderall and Adderall XR, which are made by
Shire Plc ; Strattera by Eli Lilly and Co. ; and Ritalin and Focalin
by Novartis AG -- include a ``black box" warning about the heart risks
.

But in March, a different panel of advisers concluded that such a
strong warning was not necessary and might dissuade doctors and
patients from prescribing or using the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly
Rawlings said she could not say when the FDA would make a decision on
the warning.

``This is what I was concerned about at the first advisory committee,
that what we were seeing was the tip of the iceberg," Steven Nissen,
interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic, said. Material from the Associated Press was used in
this report.


This article is sensationalist silliness. In the first place, 2500 is a
miniscule number in comparison to the number of people who are prescribed
the medication. It's an even smaller number compared to the number of
children taken to emergency rooms for all medication-related causes.

Look at the subheadline, for example: "Overdose cases fill emergency
rooms." In America, emergency rooms see more than 100 million patients per
year. That means that only 0.00025% of ER visits are related to ADHD
drugs. To say those visits "fill" emergency rooms is not just a
sensationalist exageration, it's an out and out lie. Then we see in the
second paragraph that, "About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went
to emergency rooms had serious . . . events . . ." So, fewer than seven
hundred of those 2500 cases were "serious." I know from experience what
the other 1800+ cases were like. Typically a toddler is brought in by
frightened parents after being found with a sibling's Ritalin pills. The
parents don't know how many, if any, of the pills the child took, so the
ER examines the healthy baby, finds nothing amiss, but keeps baby and
family around for three or four hours of observation just to "make sure."
And the "serious" cases? Most of those, too, will be observed in the ER
for a few hours and then discharged home after the effects of the drug,
tachycardia or hypertension or agitation, subside. (Gastric lavage, or
what the lay public calls "pumping the stomach," has fallen from favor
because it is traumatic and too seldom effective to warrant the risks
involved. Administration of activated charcoal is the most frequent
treatment.) Of those few who are seriously enough affected to warrant
admission to the hospital, nearly all will be sent home the next day. Note
that the author of the article had to combine four years of statistics to
amass 25 deaths.

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes would
not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children. To do that
you would have to remove the really dangerous things like coffee tables,
skateboards, and toys that are small enough to block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.
--


--Rich

Ilena Rose wrote:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms

That is a moronic statement.

Firstly, the study did not say that there are 2500 overdoses. It said
adverse reactions which may or may not be related to medication.

Second, that figure is for one year, and was reported at slightly over
3000. It reflects, however, eight, EIGHT *8* cases a day.

If anyone thinks that *8* cases a day can fill the emergency rooms in
the US hospitals, they are dumber than the writer.

Jan Drew wrote:
"Rich" wrote in message
...
Ilena Rose wrote in message
...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms
By Rob Waters, Bloomberg | May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 children went to hospital emergency
rooms in 2004 after taking a stimulant used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, most because of accidental overdoses, a US
government report suggests.

About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went to emergency rooms
had serious heart or blood pressure events including palpitations,
chest pain, or fainting, said the report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other cases involved children
who accidentally took someone else's medication, the report found.

The researchers reviewed emergency room visits at 64 hospitals between
August 2003 and 2005, finding 188 events related to attention deficit
drugs. From that number, they projected that there were probably 3,075
visits nationally among both children and adults. The review is made
as US regulators weigh whether to require a stronger warning on the
drugs about a possible link to sudden death and heart risks.

``Clinicians should recognize that unintentional overdoses of
stimulant medications are an important cause of injury to patients,"
said the CDC's Adam Cohen who, with colleagues, wrote a research
letter on the report published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine.

It was the first time the CDC collected such data, Cohen said, so he
was unable to say whether such problems were new or how common they
might have been.

The survey was prompted by reports of side effects among the estimated
3.3 million children and nearly 1.5 million adults who take the drugs.
Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were
reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 1999 through 2003.
Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart
attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had
prior heart problems.

In February, an advisory committee to the FDA narrowly recommended
that ADHD drugs -- such as Adderall and Adderall XR, which are made by
Shire Plc ; Strattera by Eli Lilly and Co. ; and Ritalin and Focalin
by Novartis AG -- include a ``black box" warning about the heart risks
.

But in March, a different panel of advisers concluded that such a
strong warning was not necessary and might dissuade doctors and
patients from prescribing or using the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly
Rawlings said she could not say when the FDA would make a decision on
the warning.

``This is what I was concerned about at the first advisory committee,
that what we were seeing was the tip of the iceberg," Steven Nissen,
interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic, said. Material from the Associated Press was used in
this report.

This article is sensationalist silliness. In the first place, 2500 is a
miniscule number in comparison to the number of people who are prescribed
the medication. It's an even smaller number compared to the number of
children taken to emergency rooms for all medication-related causes.

Look at the subheadline, for example: "Overdose cases fill emergency
rooms." In America, emergency rooms see more than 100 million patients per
year. That means that only 0.00025% of ER visits are related to ADHD
drugs. To say those visits "fill" emergency rooms is not just a
sensationalist exageration, it's an out and out lie. Then we see in the
second paragraph that, "About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went
to emergency rooms had serious . . . events . . ." So, fewer than seven
hundred of those 2500 cases were "serious." I know from experience what
the other 1800+ cases were like. Typically a toddler is brought in by
frightened parents after being found with a sibling's Ritalin pills. The
parents don't know how many, if any, of the pills the child took, so the
ER examines the healthy baby, finds nothing amiss, but keeps baby and
family around for three or four hours of observation just to "make sure."
And the "serious" cases? Most of those, too, will be observed in the ER
for a few hours and then discharged home after the effects of the drug,
tachycardia or hypertension or agitation, subside. (Gastric lavage, or
what the lay public calls "pumping the stomach," has fallen from favor
because it is traumatic and too seldom effective to warrant the risks
involved. Administration of activated charcoal is the most frequent
treatment.) Of those few who are seriously enough affected to warrant
admission to the hospital, nearly all will be sent home the next day. Note
that the author of the article had to combine four years of statistics to
amass 25 deaths.

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes would
not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children. To do that
you would have to remove the really dangerous things like coffee tables,
skateboards, and toys that are small enough to block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.

To the contrary, Rich's points are right on the money. With kids, the
risks he lists are far more significant.

"Mark Probert" wrote in message
...
Jan Drew wrote:
"Rich" wrote in message
...
Ilena Rose wrote in message
...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms
By Rob Waters, Bloomberg | May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 children went to hospital emergency
rooms in 2004 after taking a stimulant used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, most because of accidental overdoses, a US
government report suggests.

About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went to emergency rooms
had serious heart or blood pressure events including palpitations,
chest pain, or fainting, said the report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other cases involved children
who accidentally took someone else's medication, the report found.

The researchers reviewed emergency room visits at 64 hospitals between
August 2003 and 2005, finding 188 events related to attention deficit
drugs. From that number, they projected that there were probably 3,075
visits nationally among both children and adults. The review is made
as US regulators weigh whether to require a stronger warning on the
drugs about a possible link to sudden death and heart risks.

``Clinicians should recognize that unintentional overdoses of
stimulant medications are an important cause of injury to patients,"
said the CDC's Adam Cohen who, with colleagues, wrote a research
letter on the report published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine.

It was the first time the CDC collected such data, Cohen said, so he
was unable to say whether such problems were new or how common they
might have been.

The survey was prompted by reports of side effects among the estimated
3.3 million children and nearly 1.5 million adults who take the drugs.
Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were
reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 1999 through 2003.
Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart
attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had
prior heart problems.

In February, an advisory committee to the FDA narrowly recommended
that ADHD drugs -- such as Adderall and Adderall XR, which are made by
Shire Plc ; Strattera by Eli Lilly and Co. ; and Ritalin and Focalin
by Novartis AG -- include a ``black box" warning about the heart risks
.

But in March, a different panel of advisers concluded that such a
strong warning was not necessary and might dissuade doctors and
patients from prescribing or using the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly
Rawlings said she could not say when the FDA would make a decision on
the warning.

``This is what I was concerned about at the first advisory committee,
that what we were seeing was the tip of the iceberg," Steven Nissen,
interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic, said. Material from the Associated Press was used in
this report.

This article is sensationalist silliness. In the first place, 2500 is a
miniscule number in comparison to the number of people who are
prescribed the medication. It's an even smaller number compared to the
number of children taken to emergency rooms for all medication-related
causes.

Look at the subheadline, for example: "Overdose cases fill emergency
rooms." In America, emergency rooms see more than 100 million patients
per year. That means that only 0.00025% of ER visits are related to ADHD
drugs. To say those visits "fill" emergency rooms is not just a
sensationalist exageration, it's an out and out lie. Then we see in the
second paragraph that, "About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and
went to emergency rooms had serious . . . events . . ." So, fewer than
seven hundred of those 2500 cases were "serious." I know from experience
what the other 1800+ cases were like. Typically a toddler is brought in
by frightened parents after being found with a sibling's Ritalin pills.
The parents don't know how many, if any, of the pills the child took, so
the ER examines the healthy baby, finds nothing amiss, but keeps baby
and family around for three or four hours of observation just to "make
sure." And the "serious" cases? Most of those, too, will be observed in
the ER for a few hours and then discharged home after the effects of the
drug, tachycardia or hypertension or agitation, subside. (Gastric
lavage, or what the lay public calls "pumping the stomach," has fallen
from favor because it is traumatic and too seldom effective to warrant
the risks involved. Administration of activated charcoal is the most
frequent treatment.) Of those few who are seriously enough affected to
warrant admission to the hospital, nearly all will be sent home the next
day. Note that the author of the article had to combine four years of
statistics to amass 25 deaths.

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes would
not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children. To do that
you would have to remove the really dangerous things like coffee tables,
skateboards, and toys that are small enough to block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.

To the contrary, Rich's points are right on the money. With kids, the
risks he lists are far more significant.

Like..coffee tables and skateboards being small enough to block airways.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/...ntableD8HQDNE0...

Excerpts:


(AP) Accidental overdoses and side effects from attention deficit drugs
likely send thousands of children and adults to emergency rooms, according
to the first national estimates of the problem.


Scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated
problems with the stimulant drugs drive nearly 3,100 people to ERs each
year.


This week, the FDA said it is "working diligently" on "labeling changes that
we feel accurately reflect the available data and the advice of the
committees.


The agency declined interview requests.


On the Net: http://www.nejm.org

"Jan Drew" wrote in
. com:


"Mark Probert" wrote in message
...
Jan Drew wrote:
"Rich" wrote in message
...

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes
would not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children.
To do that you would have to remove the really dangerous things
like coffee tables, skateboards, and toys that are small enough to
block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.

To the contrary, Rich's points are right on the money. With kids, the
risks he lists are far more significant.

Like..coffee tables and skateboards being small enough to block
airways.

You've really outdone (or maybe I should say "underdone") yourself this
time.

Ask your friend the retired English teacher to explain "serial commas" to
you.

Mark Probert wrote:

Ilena Rose wrote:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms

That is a moronic statement.

Firstly, the study did not say that there are 2500 overdoses. It said
adverse reactions which may or may not be related to medication.

Second, that figure is for one year, and was reported at slightly over
3000. It reflects, however, eight, EIGHT *8* cases a day.

If anyone thinks that *8* cases a day can fill the emergency rooms in
the US hospitals, they are dumber than the writer.

Eight diagnoses of autism per day in California is described almost
every day by anti-vaccination liars as an "epidemic". They love small
numbers.
--
Peter Bowditch aa #2243
The Millenium Project http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles
Australian Council Against Health Fraud http://www.acahf.org.au
Australian Skeptics http://www.skeptics.com.au
To email me use my first name only at ratbags.com

"Eric Bohlman" wrote in message
...
"Jan Drew" wrote in
. com:


"Mark Probert" wrote in message
...
Jan Drew wrote:
"Rich" wrote in message
...

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes
would not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children.
To do that you would have to remove the really dangerous things
like coffee tables, skateboards, and toys that are small enough to
block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.

To the contrary, Rich's points are right on the money. With kids, the
risks he lists are far more significant.

Like..coffee tables and skateboards being small enough to block
airways.

You've really outdone (or maybe I should say "underdone") yourself this
time.

Don't know the difference?


Ask your friend the retired English teacher

My friend?

the retired English teacher?

You've really *outdone* yourself, Eric.

What's the matter?

Still hurt over your being wrong about *Anorexia*?

"Jan Drew" wrote in message
. com...

"Rich" wrote in message
...

Ilena Rose wrote in message
...
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...0_to_hospital/




ADHD drugs sent 2,500 to hospital
Overdose cases fill emergency rooms
By Rob Waters, Bloomberg | May 25, 2006

WASHINGTON -- More than 2,500 children went to hospital emergency
rooms in 2004 after taking a stimulant used to treat attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder, most because of accidental overdoses, a US
government report suggests.

About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went to emergency rooms
had serious heart or blood pressure events including palpitations,
chest pain, or fainting, said the report by the Atlanta-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention. Many other cases involved children
who accidentally took someone else's medication, the report found.

The researchers reviewed emergency room visits at 64 hospitals between
August 2003 and 2005, finding 188 events related to attention deficit
drugs. From that number, they projected that there were probably 3,075
visits nationally among both children and adults. The review is made
as US regulators weigh whether to require a stronger warning on the
drugs about a possible link to sudden death and heart risks.

``Clinicians should recognize that unintentional overdoses of
stimulant medications are an important cause of injury to patients,"
said the CDC's Adam Cohen who, with colleagues, wrote a research
letter on the report published today in The New England Journal of
Medicine.

It was the first time the CDC collected such data, Cohen said, so he
was unable to say whether such problems were new or how common they
might have been.

The survey was prompted by reports of side effects among the estimated
3.3 million children and nearly 1.5 million adults who take the drugs.
Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were
reported to the Food and Drug Administration from 1999 through 2003.
Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart
attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had
prior heart problems.

In February, an advisory committee to the FDA narrowly recommended
that ADHD drugs -- such as Adderall and Adderall XR, which are made by
Shire Plc ; Strattera by Eli Lilly and Co. ; and Ritalin and Focalin
by Novartis AG -- include a ``black box" warning about the heart risks
.

But in March, a different panel of advisers concluded that such a
strong warning was not necessary and might dissuade doctors and
patients from prescribing or using the drugs. FDA spokeswoman Kimberly
Rawlings said she could not say when the FDA would make a decision on
the warning.

``This is what I was concerned about at the first advisory committee,
that what we were seeing was the tip of the iceberg," Steven Nissen,
interim chairman of the department of cardiovascular medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic, said. Material from the Associated Press was used in
this report.


This article is sensationalist silliness. In the first place, 2500 is a
miniscule number in comparison to the number of people who are prescribed
the medication. It's an even smaller number compared to the number of
children taken to emergency rooms for all medication-related causes.

Look at the subheadline, for example: "Overdose cases fill emergency
rooms." In America, emergency rooms see more than 100 million patients
per year. That means that only 0.00025% of ER visits are related to ADHD
drugs. To say those visits "fill" emergency rooms is not just a
sensationalist exageration, it's an out and out lie. Then we see in the
second paragraph that, "About 1 in 4 children who took the drugs and went
to emergency rooms had serious . . . events . . ." So, fewer than seven
hundred of those 2500 cases were "serious." I know from experience what
the other 1800+ cases were like. Typically a toddler is brought in by
frightened parents after being found with a sibling's Ritalin pills. The
parents don't know how many, if any, of the pills the child took, so the
ER examines the healthy baby, finds nothing amiss, but keeps baby and
family around for three or four hours of observation just to "make
sure." And the "serious" cases? Most of those, too, will be observed in
the ER for a few hours and then discharged home after the effects of the
drug, tachycardia or hypertension or agitation, subside. (Gastric lavage,
or what the lay public calls "pumping the stomach," has fallen from favor
because it is traumatic and too seldom effective to warrant the risks
involved. Administration of activated charcoal is the most frequent
treatment.) Of those few who are seriously enough affected to warrant
admission to the hospital, nearly all will be sent home the next day.
Note that the author of the article had to combine four years of
statistics to amass 25 deaths.

So, all in all, removing all ADHD medications from America's homes would
not significantly affect the safety of the nation's children. To do that
you would have to remove the really dangerous things like coffee tables,
skateboards, and toys that are small enough to block airways.

My...my...let's all be thankful, Rich never had any kids.

Poor, pathetic, Rich.

Skateboards:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/0...lth/102203.htm

"The continued popularity of non-motorized scooters, which may seem
innocuous enough, along with in-line skates and skateboards, helps to keep
emergency rooms busy. Another 200,000 emergency room visits can be
attributed to these unpowered toys with wheels."

Coffee tables:

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/cons...roblem-CR.html

"Glass coffee tables are sleek. They're stylish. They're modern, but more
than 15,000 people are injured by glass furniture each year, many seriously.
Emergency room doctors say they have seen many children who've been severely
cut by a glass table.

"It often happens when the children are jumping on the couch, and they lose
their balance and fall into a glass coffee table, breaking through it."

http://www.onestepahead.com/articles/3/8/294956.html

"How to Childproof Your Home"

"Unfortunately, more than four million children end up in the emergency room
each year as a result of accidents occurring in the home. While there is no
replacement for vigilant supervision, proactive childproofing can go along
way towards preventing accidents."
"Cover furniture corners and edges with cushioning created for this
purpose. This includes tables (especially coffee tables), countertops, and
low dressers."

Small toys:

http://www.childrenshospital.org/az/...ageS773P0.html

"Injury and death rates:

a.. The majority (80 percent) of children who died from airway
obstruction injuries in 1997 were children ages 4 and under.
b.. A total of 659 children ages 14 and under died in 1997
from airway obstructions:
a.. More than 470 children died from suffocation,
strangulation, and entrapment (in household appliances and toy chests).
a.. Almost 200 children died from choking (food and
nonfood).
c.. In 1998, eight children, ages 8 and under, died from
choking on a toy or toy parts (half of which were balloons), and one child
died from toy-related suffocation .
d.. On average, 5,000 children, ages 14 and under, are treated
in hospital emergency rooms for airway obstruction due to toys and toy parts
annually. The majority of these children (75 percent) are ages 4 and under."

Poor, pathetic Jan. It's a good thing she's never been in a position where
it was necessary to assess relative risks to the safety of small children.
Oh, . . . Wait a minute . . .
--


--Rich

Recommended websites:

http://www.ratbags.com/rsoles
http://www.acahf.org.au
http://www.quackwatch.org/
http://www.skeptic.com/
http://www.csicop.org/