Decreasing the Size of Bottle Caps: Helping or Hurting Children?

OBJECTIVE: Our study aims to assess if decreasing bottle cap size was associated with more ingestions and injuries nationally. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review. SETTING: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database. METHODS: The NEISS was queried for bottle cap ingestions in children 0 to 18 years old between 2002 and 2021. Demographic factors including age, race, and sex of the patient were recorded. The location where the ingestion took place and the disposition of the patient were also analyzed. Data were excluded if the narrative did not specify the ingestion of a cap of a drinking bottle. RESULTS: A total of 415 bottle cap ingestion injuries were identified, for a national estimate of 11,683 injuries. The mean age at the time of ingestion was 10.3 ± 5.2 years and the majority of the injuries occurred in males (N = 9129, 78.4%). 46.4% (N = 5398) were Caucasian, 17.6% (N = 2046) were Black or African American, and 2.7% (N = 311) were Hispanic. 55.0% (N = 6405) of injuries occurred at an unknown location, 41.4% (N = 4781) occurred at home, and 2.8% (N = 326) occurred at school. 82.3% (N = 9584) of patients were treated in the emergency department and released, 6.9% (N = 808) were treated and admitted, 6.7% (N = 783) were treated and transferred, and 0.9% (N = 110) were held for observation. From 2002 (N = 6) to 2021 (N = 2291), there was a statistically significant increase in bottle cap ingestions (P < .001). CONCLUSION: Plastic bottle cap ingestions have increased in children over the last 20 years, coincident with the change to smaller bottle caps.

Corpus alienum (foreign body) embedded in the oral cavity of children: An agony of parents and diagnostic dilemma among clinicians.

Aspiration or ingestion of foreign bodies by children is a common problem globally. Corpus alienum or foreign bodies, embedded in the palate or other areas of the oral cavity, are unusual findings that can occasionally be muddled with other oral lesions. Studies reveal that the majority of cases occur in children, wherein 50% of the children lack a proper history. Since infants or very young children fail to provide proper history and are extremely scared of repeated oral examination clinical diagnosis is all the more difficult. The risks of respiratory obstruction, mucosal tear, nasopharyngeal inflammation, and gastrointestinal bleeding make these non-invasive foreign bodies potentially fatal.

A Very Fast Image Stitching Algorithm for PET Bottle Caps.

In the beverage, food and drug industry, more and more machine vision systems are being used for the defect detection of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottle caps. In this paper, in order to address the result of cylindrical distortions that influence the subsequent defect detection in the imaging process, a very fast image stitching algorithm is proposed to generate a panorama planar image of the surface of PET bottle caps. Firstly, the three-dimensional model of the bottle cap is established. Secondly, the relative poses among the four cameras and the bottle cap in the three-dimensional space are calculated to obtain the mapping relationship between three-dimensional points on the side surface of the bottle cap and image pixels taken by the camera. Finally, the side images of the bottle cap are unfolded and stitched to generate a planar image. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm unfolds the side images of the bottle cap correctly and very fast. The average unfolding and stitching time for 1.6-megapixel color caps image can reach almost 123.6 ms.

A sustainable and green chlorophyll/TiO2:W composite supported on recycled plastic bottle caps for the complete removal of Rhodamine B contaminant from drinking water.

This investigation reports the photocatalytic performance of the tungsten doped titania (TiO2:W or TW) with and without coating of chlorophyll (Chl) for the removal of the RhB dye from the drinking water. These particles were also supported on recycled plastic bottle caps (Bcap) to form other photocatalytic composites (TW/Bcap and TW + Chl/Bcap). The SEM images demonstrated that the TW particles without Chl had irregular shapes and sizes of 0.8-12 µm. The TW particles coated by the Chl presented shapes of quasi-rounded grains and smaller particle sizes of 0.8-1.8 µm. The photocatalytyic experiments showed that the photocatalyst powders containing Chl removed completely the RhB dye from the water after 2h under UV-VIS light, while the photocatalyst without Chl removed a maximum of 95% of the RhB. Interestingly, the TW/Bcap and TW + Chl/Bcap composites removed 94-100% of the RhB after 2h. Those ones removed such dye by photocatalysis and by physical adsorption at the same time (as confirmed by the absorbance and FTIR measurements), therefore, the removal of RhB was still very high. Scavenger experiments were also achieved and found that the •OH radicals are the main oxidizing species generated by the photocatalysts with and without Chl. The •O2- radicals and holes (h+) were the secondary oxidizing species. The presence of the chlorophyll on the photocatalyst increased in general the light absorption and the photocurrent. Overall, our work demonstrated that making composites with recycled plastic bottle caps is a feasible alternative to remove dyes from contaminated drinking water with high efficiency and low cost.

Adsorption of Cd and Cu to different types of microplastics in estuarine salt marsh medium.

This study aimed to investigate if microplastics (MPs) type (polyethylene microspheres (mPE), fishing line fibers, film plastic bags MPs and bottle cap particles) and aging affect MPs capacity to sorb Cd or Cu in estuarine salt marsh medium. Tests were carried out in elutriate solution, a simple medium obtained by mixing rhizosediment (sediment in contact with plants roots) with the respective estuarine water, that can be used to simulate water-sediment exchanges in estuarine salt marsh environments. After 7 days of exposure, metals adsorption was only detected for film MPs. No differences were observed between virgin and aged MPs. Salinity also did not influence metal adsorption to mPE. Present results indicate that in estuarine salt marsh areas some types of MPs might adsorb metals, which could affect metals availability.

Comparison of disinfection effects of different disinfection methods for caps of three-porous polypropylene infusion bottles / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective@#To compare the disinfection effect of three-hole polypropylene infusion bottle stopper by central sterilization method and groove central sterilization method, and to explore the best method of three-hole polypropylene infusion bottle cap disinfection.@*Methods@#A total of 1 088 bottles of three-pore polypropylene infusion bottles from 10 hospitals in Panzhihua City and the surrounding areas of Chengdu were selected for disinfection, and the effects were compared by fluorescent powder tracing method and bacterial culture method respectively. The two methods were divided into two groups: bottle stopper Central Sterilization group and groove Central Sterilization group. Each nurse sterilized two groups of liquid.@*Results@#The total area of fluorescent powder residues after disinfection of 272 bottles of infusion bottles with different specifications M(P25, P75) was 0.26 (0, 2.51). The total area of fluorescent powder residues M(P25, P75) was 15 (8, 24). There were significant differences in the residual area of fluorescent powder between the two groups after liquid bottle disinfection (Z=-17.31, P<0.01). Thirty-four positive specimens of bacteria culture, 68 bacterial colonies and 158 bottles of infusion bottles were disinfected by central sterilization of 160 bottles. There were 15 positive samples and 30 colonies of bacteria cultured in the bottle disinfected by groove central disinfection method (χ2=2.773, P<0.05).@*Conclusion@#The groove center disinfection method is the best disinfection method for the bottle stopper of three-hole polypropylene infusion bottle.

Complex Anterior Skullbase Fracture Caused by a Bottle Cap: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

We report a case of foreign body presence in the ethmoid sinus cavity with anterior skull base fracture and visual loss. A 42-year-old male had an uncertain history of trauma and a penetrating wound near the left medial canthus. Computed tomography imaging showed a 3.0-cm bottle cap penetrating into the anterior skull base. He underwent foreign body removal, canalicular repair, ethmoidectomy, and cerebrospinal fluid leakage repair using packing material. Six months after the initial surgery, a second-stage operation for blow-out fracture repair was performed. At the 18-month postoperative follow-up from the initial surgery, the patient had no complaints except anosmia. This is a very rare case of a large, blunt, foreign body penetrating into the anterior skull base without long-term complications after successful removal and skull base repair. Simultaneous repair of cerebrospinal fluid leakage, management of canaliculi injury, and traumatic optic nerve neuropathy should be considered in such cases.