Eye Injuries From Airsoft Guns Up Over 500 Percent
Tuesday, April 28, 2015 - 10:50
in Health & Medicine
3,000 children were treated in U.S. emergency departments in 2012 for eye injuries related to paintball guns, airsoft guns, BB guns and pellet guns - but the big increase was in airsoft guns. Paintball injuries have remained minor (0.4 per million children) and for over a decade BB gun manufacturers have restricted sales and marketing to minors, so there are not many "You'll shoot your eye out" moments due to those. Investigators from the Stanford University School of Medicine found that the rates for eye injuries from non-bullet guns increased by 511% between 2010 and 2012, reaching 8.4 per million children and the rise was almost exclusively due to air gun related injuries, which parallels their growth in popularity. read more