Tightening the caps

The pendulum on medicine lids soon might swing back toward making lids more difficult to open after a report about an increase in the number of children who are hospitalized for poisoning.

Researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center found that the number of accidental poisoning cases rose 22 percent between 2001 and 2008 (the most recent data that are available). The number declined between 1990 and 2000.

Researchers suggest that one reason for the increase could be easy-to-open medicine packages. Child-safety caps were made easier to open in the early 2000s when adults began to complain that they couldn’t open their medicine containers.

Food and Drug Administration didn’t return our calls that sought comment on whether medicine packaging needed another revision to combat the rise in child poisoning.