A recent surge in eye injuries among small children caused by exposure to capsules of liquid detergent prompted eye specialists to issue a warning about keeping the soap packets out of children’s reach. Writing in the British Medical Journal this week, a team of British eye doctors said that problems caused by exposure to the capsules accounted for 40% of all chemical-related eye injuries among children under age five at London’s Western Eye Hospital. What’s more, they cite data from a nearby hospital that had nearly 200 calls about capsule-related incidents among children in 2006–2007, and again in 2007–2008. Of those calls, approximately 20% had to do with eye injuries.
