MIKE BASSETT

"No sucking on can tops"

Years ago, when U.S. beverage can manufacturers did away with the pull-tab, most figured that had solved the problem of accidental ingestion of those little pieces of aluminum. According to Lane Donnelly, MD, radiologist-in-chief at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, we might need to look at the problem again.

Donnelly presented a study this morning in which he identified 19 cases of stay-tab (the replacement of the pull-tab) ingestion at Cincinnati Children's  from 1993-2009, indicating that the "redesign of beverage cans may not have reduced the number of ingestions."

Donnelly said that ingesting one of these  small pieces of metal could lead to it lodging in the gastrointestinal tract or--if sharp enough-lacerating the bowel. The problem is complicated by the fact that aluminum is radiopaque, Donnelly said, so that these tabs are not easily see on x-rays. In fact, the tabs were only visible on x-rays in four of the 19 cases. That said, all of the 19 cases were resolved without surgery.

Donnelly suggested manufacturers rethink the way their cans are constructed. Or doctors and parents can tell children  what one doctor at Cincinnati Children's wrote on one patient's hospital discharge slip--"no sucking on can tops."