§ Mr. Teddy Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent information he has obtained about the numbers of children receiving medical attention following swallowing accidents; and if he will publish a table showing the numbers of incidents related to categories of items swallowed, including erasers.
§ Mr. FletcherThe latest figures for all age groups reported by the 20 hospitals participating in my Department's home accident surveillance system are given below. With the exception of food items almost all of these relate to children.
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Objects in mouth, throat and digestive system Article 1983 *1984 Bones 583 690 Money 182 290 Fish 89 70 Meat/poultry 78 121 All toys 71 105 Fruit/vegetables 59 63 Jewellery 49 75 Nails/screws/tacks 47 52 Marbles 40 74 Bread/cakes 37 32 Sweets/chewing gum 26 53 Dressmaking pins 26 30 Ball bearings 23 43 Safety pins 21 17 Splinters 20 21 Buttons 18 22 Decorations 17 17 Drinking glass 16 12 False teeth/braces 16 17
Article 1983 *1984 Nut (edible type) 14 16 Drawing pins 14 16 Seeds 14 15 Unspecified food 14 17 Other food 13 23 Keys 12 5 Unspecified glass 11 10 Pens/pencils 10 25 Unspecified hot meals 7 15 Nuts/bolts 8 14 Balls 5 13 Batterys 8 12 Stones/pebbles 6 12 Other play/sport equipment 4 12 Sewing needles 9 10 Other articles recorded less than 10 times, including erasers 2 1 Total Accidents 1,658 2,174 * Provisional. These data are based on a rolling sample of hospitals. Thus the year by year details may not be precisely comparable.