Evaluation of eye injury risk from projectile shooting toys using the focus headform - biomed 2009

Half of eye injuries in the United States are caused by a blunt impact and more specifically, eye injuries effecting children often result from projectile shooting toys. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risk of eye injuries of currently available projectile shooting toys. In order to assess the risk of each toy, a Facial and Ocular Countermeasure Safety (FOCUS) headform was used to measure the force applied to the eye during each hit for a total of 18 tests. The selected toys included a dart gun, a foam launcher, and a ball launcher. The force ranged from 4-93 N and was analyzed using the injury risk function for globe rupture for the FOCUS headform. Projectile characteristics were also examined using normalized energy to determine risk of corneal abrasion, hyphema, lens dislocation, retinal damage and globe rupture. It was found that the three toys tested produced peak loads corresponding with risk of globe rupture between 0% and 17.3%. The normalized energy results show no risk of hyphema, lens dislocation, retinal damage or globe rupture and a maximum risk of corneal abrasion of 5.9%. This study concludes that although there are many eye injuries caused by projectiles, the selected toys show a very low risk of eye injury.