BOTTLES CAN BE DANGEROUS TOYS FOR CHILDREN

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 6, 12 December 1947, Page 4

BOTTLES CAN BE DANGEROUS TOYS FOR CHILDREN

John Anderson, aged between 3 and 4, of Ohope, is in the District Hospital with a number of stitches in his leg as the re- ) suit of a cut from a broken bottle. He is the third child treated at the hospital for bottle cuts within two days. Wliat is the public prepared to do about it?

Dr E. T. Dawson, medical Superintendent of the hospital, talking to a Beacon reporter yesterday said, “If you can do anything to stop people leaving bottles lying about, you’ll be doing a lot of good.”

All the Beacon can do about it is to tell people—parents of children who let the little ones play with bottles, beer drinkers who toss the “dead marines” any old place—that a bottle is a dangerous thing to leave lying untended. Broken glass can be fatal. Cases in which it has been are not rare.

But, there will always be the careless few who will knock the odd noggin on the side of the road, and sling the “empty” at the nearest post. There will always be the mother who will give Junior a preserving bottle and a handful of stones to keep him quiet. Well, if junior breaks the jar with a stone and falls on the pieces he may or may not cut his throat. Anyway, he’s likely to be quiet a long time.

When the carload of bright young things lop the tops off a few on the roadside and throw the “marines” at the nearest fence posts they don’t think that young Billy Jones, aged five, might be chasing a cricket ball there tomorrow. He might become a cripple for life. More often he doesn’t. The doctors fix it up. But why should they?—When a bit of thoughtfulness would save them the job and prevent Billy’s suffering?