Summer toy safety report: Safeguard your kids

(FOX 13) - Summer vacation is here, and you certainly don’t want it to include trips to the ER in your plans, but this is the time of year when more than 2.5 million children are injured.

With that in mind, World Against Toys Causing Harm, Inc. (W.A.T.C.H.) stressed the urgency of raising awareness about children’s products that can cause serious injury.

Consumer Advocates Joan E. Siff, President of W.A.T.C.H., and James A. Swartz, a nationally known trial attorney and director of W.A.T.C.H., released the 10 top “Summer Safety Traps” as examples of the many different types of hazards parents and caregivers need to avoid, to safeguard children this fourth of July weekend and throughout the summer season.

Toy guns and flying objects

Topping this year’s list are toy guns and other flying toys popular for outdoor play in the warm weather that can lead to eye and other serious injuries. Parents may be unaware that some toy guns can shoot the supplied “ammunition” with enough force to potentially cause eye injuries. Other projectiles and flying toys, such as toy darts and helicopters with rigid or sharp edges, can also cause face or eye injuries.

Swartz noted that eye injuries to children from non-powder guns alone, such as airsoft and pellet guns, increased exponentially - by more than 500-percent - between 2010 and 2012.* He warns parents to “look out for toys that could cause significant eye injuries - an often overlooked hazard.”

Drowning risk

Water safety is another vitally important issue, particularly as the Fourth of July weekend approaches - a time for celebration, but also a time when there is typically an increase in reported drowning. This year’s Summer Safety Report emphasizes reviewing water safety precautions to save lives and reduce the drowning hazards that may be in your or your neighbors’ backyards, including: baby pools, inflatable pool toys, gardening buckets and swimming pool covers filled with water.

Recent studies show 434 children under five died between 2006 and 2010, and another 233 were injured from non-pool, non-spa related submersions – that means kiddie pools, buckets, and fountains. Young children can drown in as little as two inches of water.

For the full report from “W.A.T.C.H” click here: http://toysafety.org/press-release-6-28-16/