
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 1, 1990                   TAG: 9006290013
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: EX8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHILDPROOF CAPS TOO OFTEN IGNORED BY MANY ADULTS

Safety caps designed to prevent children from ingesting drugs and chemicals are resistant to many adults, as well. As a result, adults do not use the caps or fail to close them properly and young children are still poisoned at an alarming rate.

Some manufacturers and research centers are designing child-resistant packaging that will be easier for adults to use but still foil children.

And the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is considering a regulation requiring that safety caps be tested on adults 60 to 75 years old; only adults up to age 45 are used now.

Research has shown that difficulty with safety caps is particularly high among the elderly.

But some producers of child-resistant caps say that the present rules are adequate and that efforts to make caps easier to open for older adults may also make them more accessible to children, said Darla Williamson, a director of the Closure Manufacturers Association, a trade group.

The safety caps now in use often require that two dissimilar forces - a downward push and a turn - be made at the same time. Another common cap can be pushed off after markings on the cap and container are lined up.

Several cap designs under development rely less on strength or manual dexterity. Instead, they take advantage of cognitive skills undeveloped in 2-year-old children, who are most likely to accidentally swallow drugs.

A design by Yellowstone Environmental Sciences Inc. in Bozeman, Mont., involves a cap that is opened by dialing a combination, much like a bicycle lock.

by CNB