From: "Michael Heinz" <michael.heinz@destiny.com>
To: <balloon@balloonhq.com>
Subject: Doing some research:
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 15:40:07 -0500

Well,

I decided to start digging on the net. So far, I've found that:

The children's hospital of Iowa claims latex balloons are the leading cause
of choking deaths for children under 6. (Note: No indication of how many
deaths that actually is, and no reference to where they drew this
information).
http://australia.vh.org/Patients/IHB/Peds/Safety/BalloonSafety.html

USA Today says that the AMA says that balloons are the leading cause of
non-food choking deaths. Interestingly, they only looked at 449 deaths
total, over *twenty years* of which 140 or so were attributed to balloons.
Digging through information at the AMA web site leads me to believe that
these numbers are just for the hospital where the author is employed. Two
kids choked on latex medical gloves they got from doctors.
http://206.251.19.76/life/health/child/safety/lhcsa002.htm

I also found a quote from the Journal of the AMA which claimed that more
children are killed by balloons than any toy except bicycles - again no
actual statistics.

I'd be happy if I found something that says "The CPSC says xxx children die
each year from aspirating a balloon or a balloon fragment" but that AMA
study certainly indicates an issue - 7 kids a year at one hospital ain't
nothing.