New reports have come in showing that an increasing number of toddlers are being accidentally poisoned by e-cigarettes. According to a report in WBT, the study, published in Pediatrics medical journal tracks data from the National Poison Data System from January 2012 to April 2015. According to the research, the average number of children below the age of six poisoned has increased by a shocking 1492 percent.
The children who have accidentally ingested the liquid nicotine in these artificial cigarettes have ended up seizing, or in comas, or in worst cases dead. Lead author of the study Dr. Gary Smith, who is also director at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Ohio’s Nationwide Children’s Hospital has called it an ‘epidemic by any definition.’
According to a report in ABC, the study has implored that parents be more vigilant when it comes to their children and e-cigarettes. Most children are apparently attracted to the colorful packaging some of these e-cigarette brands sport – making it essential for parents to keep them out of reach and out of sight to reduce the number of poisonings. ABC notes that most children hurt were under the age of two.
Exposure to the liquid nicotine can have many visible effects on young children – including vomited and shaking. Texas Children’s Hospital’s chief safety officer Dr. Joan Shook has said that e-cigarettes should be treated like medicine and kept ‘closed, locked and out of reach of children’.
Many emergency physicians are going, ‘What the heck, this is really a problem, why aren’t they doing anything about it?’ If you use these products, you need to treat them as medication or toxins and keep them closed, locked and out of reach of children.
New restrictions will soon be in place according to ABC, that will ensure the e-cigarettes have restrictions that traditional cigarettes have, including warnings and packaging that will not attract children.
