Cashless society could be why fewer kids are eating coins
Researchers from the UK’s National Health Service believe increasing adoption of cashless payments may be having an unexpected payoff: Fewer kids are swallowing coins and seeking medical help to remove them.
As explained in a paper titled “Coin-cidence? Have cashless payments reduced the incidence of upper aerodigestive foreign body insertion?”, since use of cash started to decline in 2012 UK Hospital Episode Statistics reveal a decline in procedures to remove foreign bodies (FBs).
“The frequency of alimentary tract FB removal procedures decreased significantly by 27.78 procedures per year,” the paper states, while respiratory FB removal procedure decreased by 4.83 per year … and nasal cavity FB removal procedures decreased by 52.82 per year.”
Removing FBs is expensive: The paper cites data that shows annual costs of £2,880,148 ($3.7 million).
The authors think the decline in alimentary tract FB removals is most notable, because coins account for 66 percent of swallowed FBs in patients aged below six.
But they also admit that the more substantial decrease in procedures to remove FB from the nasal cavity contradicts the hypothesis that cashless payments – and the resulting drop in prevalence of coins in many households – is the sole reason fewer kids are eating cash.
“The significant decline in FB removal procedures identified across all three groups is likely multifactorial,” the authors wrote. “Changes in public health policies, education programmes targeting children and parents, and shifts in population behaviours unrelated to payment methods may all play a part.”
“It is positive that fewer children are swallowing coins,” Mr. Ram Moorthy, a council member at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Consultant Adult and Paediatric Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) surgeon. “This study shows how new technology can make children safer in ways we didn’t intend.”
However Moorthy feels tech could be creating other problems.
“As doctors, we still worry about other dangerous items, such as button batteries and magnets, that can really cause harm. We must continue to make sure that small items like this are not within a child’s reach.”
And if your kids swallow a button battery, go straight to an emergency department as health authorities warn they react with internal moisture to produce a strong alkali chemical that can cause serious internal burns and bleeding.
“The coin shaped batteries are easily caught in the oesophagus, and when stuck start to cause damage immediately and can erode through the oesophagus wall very quickly (within 2 hours),” warn Australian authorities.
The Register subscribes to product recall notices so we can warn readers of dangerous devices. Most recalls now concern items that don’t secure button batteries, which are dangerous because small kids are attracted to their shiny surfaces. ®
