In the UK between 2001 and 2013, 28 children aged four years and under died as a result of ingesting pharmaceutical products. Between 2002 and 2012, a further 201 children aged four and under were admitted to intensive care due to pharmaceutical poisoning. Add to this countless cases of young ones being taken to a GP or feeling ill after swallowing unsuitable medicinal products, and it becomes clear that greater focus needs placing on protecting children from accidental consumption.

Children are curious by nature and unaware of the risks that exploring their surroundings may present. No matter how intelligent or inherently cautious, a young child is still likely to have accidents and potentially put its life at risk. To combat this, adults need to take responsibility and put proactive measures in place, making the home environment as safe as possible.

This responsibility isn’t just down to parents. Whilst storing hazardous materials away from little hands is essential, the producers of household items must also ensure that all products are manufactured to international standards, and pre-empt possible incidents through smart design. This is particularly applicable to the pharmaceutical packaging industry.

Children can be quite ingenious and show intense perseverance when discovering new things, so we have to apply the same innovation and dedication to keeping them out of harm’s way. Origin works closely with the Child Safe Packaging Group (CSPG) to create superior packaging solutions, helping to avoid over 40 million ingestions. This is achieved through first-rate safeguarding techniques that have been developed in line with our HP3 business model, which includes research in to the types of materials, design, tooling, trials, validation, production and assembly, guaranteeing consistent dependability whilst catering to our customers’ specific needs.

As well as promoting child safety in the home, our methods also prevent the illegal tampering of packaging by criminals and unlawful organisations, providing all-encompassing peace of mind for the consumer. So whilst it’s easy to assume that child-resistant packaging targets children specifically, it actually benefits the entire family in more ways than one.

Origin is a global expert in the design, production and evolution of safety caps on medicine. Meeting and exceeding the requirements of international standards of BSI child resistants, BSEN ISO8317 and 16CFR1700, we’re Bringing Healing Home and creating a brighter, healthier, safer future.

For more information, please visit https://originltd.com/packaging/child-resistant-packaging/