Doctors have warned that using Nerf guns can cause severe eye damage, said researchers. The bullets and blasters from these guns could lead to internal eye damage especially bleeding around the eye. It also leads to weaker eye sight, stated an expert from Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.
Children are increasingly watching YouTube videos to learn how they could tune their Nerf guns work faster and further, said doctors.
While calling for reconsideration of the safe age limit for Nerf gun usage among children, the doctors said they should wear protective goggles and other necessary protective stuff.
The manufacturer of Nerf guns, Husbro, has a wide range of products including guns, blasters, bows and arrows especially targeted at children aged above eight.
The researchers have cited the cases of three patients who have suffered severe eye damage due to Nerf guns. An old man suffered blurred vision and a red eye, when a child from a distance of eight metres shot in his eye with a Nerf gun. Similarly, a 43-year-old woman was shot from a distance of one metre and she suffered blurred vision.
A child suffered swelling of retina with severe pain and poor eye vision as he received Nerf gun shot from a distance of two metres. However, in each of these cases, victims received their sight again.
Nevertheless, the guns have the potential to cause long-term vision loss, said experts. "No safe distance of avoidance of significant eye trauma can be established from the cases seen," said researchers.
"It is important to note that the risk of having an eye injury with the Nerf gun darts also comes from the fact that a projectile can harm when it travels fast enough, " they cautioned in their paper published in the British Medical Journal.
