Toys that show on X-ray

Press, 10 April 1984, Page 17

Toys that show on X-ray

NZPA-AP Washington Prompted by a request from paediatricians, a toymaker, Mattel Corporation, has developed a new type of plastic that shows up on Xray examinatons with the hope that it will help doctors reduce deaths and injuries among children who swallow or inhale small toy parts. Dr James Holroyd of the University of Southern California, and Dr Joseph Greensher, the chief of pediatrics at Nassau Hospital, Long Island, New York, announced the development of the • so-called radiopaque

plastic at a recent meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Phoenix. Mattel spent three years trying to make a plastic that was mouldable, unbreakable and, visible under X-ray. X-rays pass through most plastics, while radiopaque materials block some or all of the rays, leaving ..a shadow on X-ray film. Dr Holyrod said that the new mattel plastic showed up on an X-ray like a piece of lead. Mattel, one of the United States’ biggest toymakers, used the new plastic to

; make the small parts for its ’ 1984 line of toys. A company spokesman, Mr Jack Fox, i said that information on the : process used in making the plastic would be made available to the company’s competitors upon request. Mr Fox declined to disi cuss the cost of developing 1 the plastic but said that i there would be no change in • the cost of the toys. Young children who in- ! gest small toy parts can suffer respiratory and intestinal problems, asphyxiaI tion, and death unless the , object is located quickly and i removed.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said that it had received reports last year of 3758 cases where toys or parts were swallowed. There were also 668 reported cases where parts had been inhaled and entered the breathing system of children. A commission Spokeswoman, Ms Ann Sherr, said that no information was available on the number of deaths involved' in those cases. Dr Holroyd estimated that 300 American children died each year from inhaling small items.