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Balloons are seemingly harmless objects, but they can be lethal to young children. Ryan and colleagues report on four Canadian children who died from toy rubber balloons. Three children, two, four, and nine years old, aspirated uninflated balloons. The fourth child, age two, bit into an inflated balloon, and a piece of the broken balloon obstructed his airway at the level of the carina.
Reviewing data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the authors found that at least 121 children choked to death on toy rubber balloons between 1973 and 1988. Many of these children were infants, but 25 percent were six years or older. Balloons accounted for 43 percent of asphyxial deaths from children's products. The authors note that bec…