Swingset Dust and Eye Injuries

Metal dust from swings may endanger eyesight of children with autism.
The New York Times (4/16, Rabin) reports, "Children with autism are often calmed by riding on a swing; some do it for hours every day. But doctors are warning of a serious hazard that can occur when wear and tear causes small metal fragments to peel from the suspension apparatus and fall into children's eyes." According to the Times, a recent article describes the case of "a 10-year-old boy [who] came to an eye clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital with something lodged in his right eye." After questioning the mother, the physician discovered the "child spent hours each day on a homemade swing." To protect children, experts recommend that children "wear safety glasses," and that parents "wrap the swing mechanism in a cloth to catch any metal dust."
New autism disease may not exist, research says. The AP (4/16) reports that according to research published Friday in the BMJ, autistic enterocolitis, "a bowel disease found in autistic people," may not exist. In 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a study in the journal Lancet which described a new bowel disease and "proposed a connection between autism and the vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella. The study was widely discredited." The paper "set off a health scare," and it was later retracted by Lancet. Sir Nicholas Wright of the London School of Medicine and Dentistry says, "several studies have shown a link between inflamed bowels and autism, but too little evidence exists to prove there is a new illness."