BABY ASPIRIN

I know I am not the only one who is guilty of cursing the day childproof caps were invented. I often wonder if the manufacturers, when faced with the task of preventing children from gaining access, simply took the easy way out, designing lids that can not be opened by any humans on the planet.

A do-it-yourselfer in San Francisco has even resorted to inventing ways to disarm bottles with "evil" childproof caps, as he calls them, using thumbtacks, toothpicks, and nail clippers. He claims he wants to make life easier for those adults who are childless or suffering from arthritis

I grew up in the 60's, years before childproof caps were on the market. I survived, luckily.

When I was a child, I had no idea that baby aspirin could kill or that baby oil contained hyrdrocarbons and could be lethal. Fortunately for me, my mother was aware of the dangers of aspirin. But, I am certain she too was clueless when it came to baby oil. A large bottle of Johnson's baby oil was in our bathroom always within easy reach for dry skin relief.

Regulations mandating child resistant packaging became effective in the U.S. in 1972. A 2002 study analyzed the effectiveness of child-resistant packaging for aspirin. Unlike the only other study conducted in 1985, researchers concluded that the packaging reduced aspirin-related child poisoning 34% during 1973-1990.

Although child-resistant packaging has reduced the child mortality rate, researchers cautioned that additional strategies such as "...designing packaging that relies more on cognitive abilities than strength, should ultimately lead to further reductions in the child-poisoning rate by lowering adult resistance to the use of child-resistant packaging."

So, if consumers can use their Yankee ingenuity to make childproof caps easy to open, why have manufacturers not designed improved packaging?

Trusting young kids to be aware of the consequences of their actions might be just as foolish as eating an entire bottle of baby aspirin because it tastes good. Trusting adults apparently can pose the same risks.