The study was done basing on the visits that the U.S. emergency department has made in certain years of age. Researchers found out that workplace chemical ranked high as the major causes of potentially blinding eye accidents. Dr. Sterling who was the research leader said that the major culprits in children are the household cleaners. He added that previous research has implicated spray bottles.

Young-age eye injury rates

The young people stood a higher chance of getting eye chemical burns than the adults. The rate is 1.5 times higher. This is according to Haring, doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. The toddler injuries happen mostly at homes of the low-income families. 2010-2013 analyzed data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample revealed that the South has the highest number.

Scope of the study

The study was done on 900 hospitals and found out that 144,000 ER visits were linked to chemical eye burns from all groups.
Dr. Roberto Warman, a pediatric ophthalmologist at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami took part in the study. He said that on a daily basis, they have cases of eye injuries for the little children. Warman said that the cause among most of the cases is the same: the toddler gets access to a cleaner in the house; the result is eye damage.

In general, the working-age adults also stood risks of eye damage. After categorizing the data according to year of life, adults aged 24 years were more likely to experience the injury. In the children’s category, one and two year olds suffered most of the injury, which was 1.5 times more than the 24-year olds.

Most of the accident was caused by alkaline chemicals than the acid ones. Some of the places where alkaline agents can be found include drain cleaners, oven cleaners, ammonia products and chlorine cleaners. Haring explained that alkaline chemicals have the power to continuously burn inside the eye, even after reaching the compound.

While acknowledging that most work places have put in appropriate measures to keep the adults safe, Haring agreed that the industry as well as parents should do more to protect the babies. There are times when children coming from low-income families are left all alone.
Haring speculated that the possibility of poorer families purchasing a baby-protection device was low considering the cost. He noted that a cheap safety lock can be of great help.

Warman questioned the manner in which pediatricians pass information to the families. They inform them to keep cleaners out of reach, but then add a lot other information. This turns out to be confusing to them.

According Haring, it is a disaster to keep household chemicals beneath the sink, even if there is a lock. The best thing is to store all the cleaning supplies and other harmful products in a cabinet and kept it locked. Their usage should be well supervised, even if it’s the older children using them. Also, remember to switch the nozzles to “off” before they are stored.
The industry also has a special role to play in protecting both the toddlers and adults. The spray bottles can be simply changed to automatically lock themselves after it has been used.

But as much as there are precautions, chemicals may find their way into one’s eyes. If you find yourself in such a situation, run tap water over your eye and then visit a doctor.