Safety gear helps kids dodge injury

Kids who received a paintball gun for Christmas should also have gotten a facemask and a list of safety rules. Too many, however, appear not to have those accessories.

The number of serious eye injuries among kids caused by paintballs is rising fast, experts say, apparently because children are using the guns while unsupervised and without protective masks or goggles.

New statistics from the Consumer Product Safety Commission show that paintball injuries to kids younger than 15 had doubled from 1998 to 2000 and that most of the injuries were to the eye. The eye injuries included retinal detachment, corneal abrasion, bleeding, lens dislocation and ruptured eye globe.

Such injuries caused permanent vision damage in 43.1% of patients, said Dr. David Listman, a pediatric emergency medicine specialist at St. Barnabas Hospital in New York City and the author of the study.

“The paintballs are fairly small and light. But most people don’t have any understanding of how fast these things come out of the gun. They hit with a tremendous amount of force. And they’re made to be shot at people.”

Although paintballs can cause welts and scars to the skin, the eye is vulnerable because the pellets are small enough to bypass the bony structure around the eye and hit soft tissue, Listman said.

The design of protective facemasks has improved in recent years, and the operators of organized paintball centers require their use. However, a growing number of people, especially kids, are using paintball guns in backyards, woods and basements, he said.

Even if kids start their games wearing masks or goggles, they often take them off because of fogging, discomfort or because the goggles fall off while running.

The study was published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics.