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Toys are meant to be fun and engaging. For the most part, children find no issues in playing with their favorite toys. However, there are injury issues relating to certain styles of toys. Today, we’re going to look at a few of those issues.
Pogo Stick Injuries
Arguably, one of the most inconsistent messages across the toy industry comes from advertisements concerning pogo sticks (and pogo-stick-like toys, including pogo trick boards). Often, the packaging from a range of manufacturers will depict children using the toy without protective headgear, while other children in the image are shown with the headgear in place – this can lead to injuries where safety measures are not followed. Contact a personal injury lawyer based in Columbia if you have been affected. Common injuries associated with pogo stick accidents include chipped teeth, leg injuries, and cuts and bruising to the face.
Toys With Small Magnets
In some instances, such as in the case of plastic doll accessories, magnets are used by manufacturers as a means of attaching different parts of the toy together for added creativity. Some children’s board games also contain magnets. The problem is that these small magnets can become loose. Ingestion of one small magnet poses a potential health risk, and ingestion of more than one magnet can result in those magnets being attracted to each other between the walls of the body’s internal soft tissues, increasing the chance of soft tissue perforations and of general blockages.
Ride-on Toys (including hoverboards)
Perhaps the group of toys most responsible for childhood injury, ride-on toys such as tricycles, bikes, scooters, and electric hoverboards can result in injury where the child falls from the toy and is not wearing protective safety equipment such as a helmet, knee pads, and elbow pads. A separate issue specific to electric hoverboards (which must be recharged), involves the potential for electrical fires where the device is not manufactured to certain safety standards – several instances of this type of electrical fire were reported in the news, heightening public awareness of the problem (always purchase electrical goods from reputable sources).
“Spark Producing” Toys
There are multiple examples of toys on the market that produce sparks. Typically, the design involves a spinning wheel that makes sparks when spun at high speed (similar to the wheel found in handheld flint style lighters). While these sparks can add new audio-visual dimensions to the toy, issues can occur when the toy is used on or near flammable materials, such as when a toy car containing a spark-producing device is used across paper or clothing.
Toys That Fly
Toys that fly typically pose a risk to the face and head. This is because children who are eager to see their toy take to the skies are likely to look up at the toy as it flies – however, children may not have the necessary speed of cognition to track the flight path of the toy, predict the flight path that the toy is likely to take in the coming seconds, and to move out of the way in a time where necessary.