CPSC NEISS · code 443

Drinking Straws

Drinking Straws: danger rank #370 of 838 is not ER-volume rank #343 of 838 (3,263 estimated ER visits a year; roughly flat over the last five years).

Containers, Tableware & Packaging CPSC NEISS through 2024

Danger score versus ER volume

Danger score versus ER volume

According to CPSC NEISS 2005-2024, Drinking Straws ranks #370 of 838 by danger score (36/100) at ER-volume #343 of 838 (3,263/yr). They are not the same ranking.

#370
danger rank of 838
#343
ER-volume rank of 838
36/100
danger score
3,263/yr
estimated ER visits (avg)

Danger score combines injury volume, hospitalization, fatality, and five-year trend. ER volume is the average annual NEISS estimate alone. Rank 1 is highest on each list.

Where this category's danger score sits nationally

Danger score (36/100) across 838 scored CPSC product categories

36 Around the middle lower than 44% of 838 product categories

scored CPSC product categories, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more product categories. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source CPSC NEISS, PlainSafety danger-score model · 2024

Composite verdict

Composite Safety Score: 47/100

One verdict blending 4 independently-sourced dimensions from two separate CPSC systems, each benchmarked against all 838 scored product categories by percentile rather than raw value, so no single huge-volume category can dominate the scale.

C
Dimension Value National percentile Weight applied Source
Injury severity (hospitalization + fatality blend) 4 32nd 35% CPSC NEISS 20-year severity index
Annual ER injury volume 3,263 53rd 30% CPSC NEISS estimated annual ER-treated injuries
5-year injury trend +6% 75th 15% CPSC NEISS 5-year % change in ER-treated injuries
Consumer incident reports 8 43rd 20% CPSC SaferProducts.gov public incident report count

Methodology: each dimension is ranked against the full population's p10/p25/p50/p75/p90 breakpoints and interpolated to a 0-100 percentile; the composite is the weighted average of available percentiles. See methodology for the full benchmark table.

Where 65,280 estimated ER injuries land on the body

Body-part shares from the same CPSC NEISS injury_types extract for product code 443. Segments sum to 65,280 - a body-map mix, not a danger score or ER-volume rank.

Two danger lenses

Same-group peer scores and this product's dial

The bars compare PlainSafety danger scores inside the Containers, Tableware & Packaging group (same CPSC NEISS extract). The dial is this product's score alone on the Low/Moderate/High bands. Do not read a peer bar as an ER-visit count.

Containers, Tableware & Packaging danger scores

1. Waste Containers, Trash B…45/1002. Knives, Not Elsewhere Cla…44/1003. Drinking Glasses, Cups, A…42/1004. Cookware, Not Specified42/1005. Manual Cleaning Equipment…41/1006. Kitchen Gadgets, Not Else…41/1007. Unpowered Coffee Makers O…41/1008. Drinking Straws36/100
Higher score = higher composite danger in this group. Peer set is other scored products sharing the same CPSC group.
0/100100/10036/100
PlainSafety danger score · Drinking Straws

Source: CPSC NEISS danger-score model As of 2024

How this 36/100 score is built

The score is computed from four CPSC-derived factors for drinking straws - no opinion, no editorializing:

  • Injury volume 3,263 ER visits/yr Above median volume
  • Severity (hospitalization rate) 2.8% Low admission rate
  • Fatality rate 0.10% Above-typical fatality rate
  • 5-year trend+6%

Band labels compare this category against the corpus of 838 scored CPSC product categories, see the full methodology for the exact weighting of each factor.

What the CPSC Data Shows

Across the 20-year NEISS window from 2005 to 2024, injury counts for drinking straws are roughly flat over the last five years, with the busiest year on record being 2024 (5,265 estimated ER visits) and the quietest 2005 (1,724 estimated visits). The single most common ER diagnosis is contusions, abr. to the eyeball, accounting for approximately 12,545 visits across the 20-year NEISS window, followed by laceration to the mouth (10,915 cases). The 0-4 age group absorbs the largest share of injuries, about 29,470 cases over the NEISS window, and males appear slightly more often than the opposite sex in that cohort. Severity outcomes from the NEISS disposition field show that 2.8% of ER visits involving this product end in hospital admission or transfer, and a small fraction (0.10%) result in fatality.

Beyond the hospital-sampled NEISS projections, this page also aggregates 8 consumer incident reports filed directly on SaferProducts.gov, plus 20 anonymized ER narratives - together forming a layered picture of how drinking straws fail in real households. Every figure on this page comes from CPSC-published data: NEISS projects national estimates from a probability sample of about 100 U.S. hospital emergency departments, while SaferProducts.gov collects voluntary reports from consumers, manufacturers, and clinicians. The danger score, trend indicators, and demographic breakdowns update automatically when CPSC releases a new yearly NEISS file, which is why this page is dated 2024-12-31. For regulatory context, consult CPSC recall notices and the SaferProducts.gov public database linked below.

Annual Injury Estimates (2005–2024)

1K2K3K4K5K6K 20052008201120142017202020232024 5K
Estimated annual emergency-room visits for Drinking Straws, CPSC NEISS

Source: CPSC NEISS national injury estimates As of 2024

Source: CPSC NEISS national estimates Injuries represent ER-treated cases only

Who Gets Injured?

Age Group Male Female Total
0-4 16,316 13,077 29,470
5-14 11,793 8,185 20,019
15-24 1,470 2,217 3,687
25-34 2,019 2,127 4,146
35-44 1,222 1,719 2,941
45-54 1,364 713 2,077
55-64 721 729 1,450
65-74 297 283 580
75+ 362 519 881

Most Common Injuries

Body Part Diagnosis Est. Injuries
Eyeball Contusions, Abr. 12,545
Mouth Laceration 10,915
Internal Ingestion 8,262
Mouth Puncture 4,129
Mouth Contusions, Abr. 3,894
Mouth Other 3,667
Face Foreign Body 2,255
Internal Aspiration 1,838
Ear Contusions, Abr. 1,184
All Parts Body Poisoning 1,177
Ear Internal Injury 1,177
Face Laceration 1,177
Eyeball Other 1,062
Neck Contusions, Abr. 1,018
Ear Foreign Body 1,011

Severity Breakdown

Treated/examined And Released 94.9% (61,934)
Treated And Admitted/hospitalized 2.3% (1,527)
Left Without Being Seen 1.8% (1,197)
Treated And Transferred 0.5% (354)
Held For Observation 0.3% (195)
Fatality Incl. Doa, Died In Er 0.1% (73)

ER Visit Narratives

Real anonymized emergency room reports from the CPSC NEISS database.

Age 218 · Male · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

18 MOM WAS RUNNINNG WHILD HOLDING A PLASTIC STRAW, FELL AND IT POKED HIM IN THE LT EYE. HAS REDNESS AND SWELLING TO EYE. DX: CORNEAL ABRASION

Age 55 · Male · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

55YOM C/O EYE PROBLEM. STATES HE WAS POKED IN THE EYE WITH A PIECE OF STRAW. PHYSICAL EXAM REVEALS CORNEAL ABRASION LEFT EYE. DX: INJURY TO CONJUNCTIVA AND CORNEAL ABRASION WITHOUT FOREIGN BODY

Age 55 · Female · Mouth · Dental Injury · 2024

55YOF HX JAW CLICKING/TEETH GRINDING PRESENT TO ED W/ R SIDE JAW PX. YESTERDAY PT WAS DRINKING FROM A STRAW,NOTICED POP IN JAW ON R SIDE.WAS ABLE TO EAT/CHEW DINNER LAST NIGHT.TOOK IBUPROFEN W/O IMPROVEMENT.INABILITY TO FULLY OPEN MOUTH.DX:SUBLUXATION OF JAW ACQUIRED;OSTEOARTHRITIS OF R TEMPOROMANDIBULAR JOINT

Age 14 · Male · Internal · Ingestion · 2024

14YOM C/O FOREIGN BODY. HE STS HE WAS CHEWING ON STRAW FROM A *** & SWALLOWED A SMALL PIECE OF STRAW. HE FEELS IT IS STUCK IN HIS THROAT. ABLE TO HANDLE SECRETIONS. IS HERE FOR EVALUATION. DX: GLOBUS SENSATION

Age 4 · Male · Mouth · Laceration · 2024

4YOM PRESENTS WITH LACERATION TO UPPER FRENULUM AFTER CHEWING ON A PLASTIC STRAW WHILE JUMPING ON MOM'S BOUNCING BALL AND THE STRAW HIT UPPER LIP ON INSIDE OF MOUTH DX: LACERATION UPPER FRENULUM

Age 6 · Male · Neck · Internal Injury · 2024

6YOM WAS PLAYING WITH A LONG STRAW IN HIS MOUTH WHICH WAS PUSHED TO BACK OF PT THROAT. NOW HAS LARGE LACERATION TO THE BACK OF THROAT. DX: NONE; PT ELOPED

Age 217 · Male · Internal · Ingestion · 2024

17MOM WAS AT HOME HAVING BREAKFAST AND HAD A GLASS STRAW IN HIS HAND THAT HE BIT THE END OFF OF, SWALLOWED APPROXIMATELY 3CM PIECE OF GLASS. DX: F.B. INGESTION

Age 211 · Male · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

11MOM POKED SELF IN RIGHT EYE WITH STRAW. DX: CORNEAL ABRASION.

Age 7 · Male · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

7YOM- PT PRESENT WITH PAIN TO RIGHT EYE AFTER SIBLING ACCIDENTALLY POKED PT WITH A STRAW TO EYE. DX: ABRASIONS OF SCLERA OF RIGHT EYE.

Age 2 · Female · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

2 YOF PRESENTS WITH EYE ABRASION S/P ACCIDENTALLY POKED HERSELF IN THE EYE WITH A PLASTIC DRINKING STRAW. DX: EYE ABRASION

Age 3 · Male · Eyeball · Contusions, Abr. · 2024

3YOM WAS PLAYING W SIBLINGS W STRAWS AND GOT POKED IN EYE DX CORNEAL ABRASION

Age 12 · Male · Mouth · Other · 2024

12YOM WAS DRINKING A SMOOTHIE AND HE WAS USING A LARGE STRAW AND IT PENETRATED THE BACK OF HIS MOUTH WHEN HIS DAD JOKINGLY TAPPED HIM ON THE BACK OF THE HEAD DX SOFT PALATE INJURY

Consumer Incident Reports

Reports filed by consumers on SaferProducts.gov.

7/22/2013 · No Incident, No Injury · Moxie Glass Company LLC · Unspecified

Report is for glass hand-blown straws for children sold by a company called "Uncommon Goods". The product numbers are 21904 and 30392 Danger is in the glass straws that have hand blown fish at the bottom to chip and glass chips to be sucked up by a child. Children may have a tendency to tap the glass straw on the bottom of a glass and chip it. Web address for the company is uncommongoods.com The glass straws are on page 58 of the magazine I received around January 2013. I am a nurse and just noticed the product as I was glancing through the magazine so I could toss it out. There has been no incident that I know of and the product may already be off the shelf, but if not, it needs to be pulled immediately. It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. Thanks, [REDACTED]

5/26/2025 · Incident, No Injury · PURA STAINLESS · United States

I am writing to report a serious safety issue with a childrens product: the Pura Kiki original straw, manufactured by Pura Stainless. This product is marketed for babies and young children, but after minimal use, the valved tip of the straw detaches or falls apart after being bitten, posing a significant choking hazard. I have personally experienced this issue twice with two separate straws from the same pack. The first time it happened, I believed it might have been accidental or a one-off problem. However, after a second straw tip failed in the same manner, I am convinced this is a product defect that could endanger a childs life. These straws were purchased in late February 2025, so they are still relatively new and well within their expected usable period. I am deeply concerned that this product remains on the market and urge the CPSC to investigate and consider issuing a recall or safety warning to protect other children and families from harm. Please let me know if you require photos, the batch number, or any additional documentation. I am more than willing to assist in your investigation. Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

4/4/2020 · Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received · KOHL'S DEPARTMENT STORE, INC. · Ohio

Purchased Stainless Steel Straws with silicone flex tips and a cleaning brush from Kohl’s Department store on February 14, 2020. Prior to using I rinsed the straws off and let them dry. When I went to use the pink straw for the first time I began to sip the drink and a small piece of silicone shot down my throat. Thankfully I was able to feel this object and immediately stopped sipping and began to cough the small pink piece up. Very scary and grateful it only left me with a scratchy throat. If it happens to a younger child and this object becomes lodged it could easily cut off someones airway. I have since checked the remaining 3 straws and found no similar issues. This is a great straw but the manufacturer must check for remaining silicone parts prior to packaging further products to avoid a possible choking hazard.

11/26/2018 · Injury, Emergency Department Treatment Received · 7-Eleven, Inc. · California

I was in the backyard with my son while he was drinking through an aluminum slurpee straw from 7-eleven. We were walking back in the house when he tripped and still had the straw in his mouth. I turned to pick him up and he pulled the straw out of his mouth. He tried to scream but the only noise he made out was more of a gurgling. The straw had went through the rear of the roof of his mouth and there was blood spilling everywhere. He was gasping for air but there was so much blood he couldn't get a breath. I took him to the ER for treatment because I couldn't get the bleeding to stop and I didn't know how much more blood he could lose before it would be fatal. Marketing a potentially fatal product specifically to attract the eyes of children no matter how innocent a straw might seem, is purely negligent and a disregard for consumer safety.

10/25/2016 · Injury, Seen by Medical Professional · Starbucks Coffee Company · California

I bought this straw and stainless cup at the starbucks in Norwalk Ca. in the Target shopping center. I used the straw for approx. 3 weeks. I felt pain in my left front tooth and lower left canine (next to) tooth. I discontinued use for approx. 2 weeks. The pain subsided. I went back to using the cup and straw for another approx. Month. Within a week The left front upper tooth cracked as well as the lower tooth described. I immediately stopped using. I went into the starbucks I bought them at and aske about the number for the district manager. And that persons name. I was made to wait for almost 30 minutes and they were not busy at the time. I had to leave. So I am here filling this out. And am going to take starbucks to Small claims court tomorrow . The incident date below is an extreme approximation!!

10/24/2016 · Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received · Starbucks Coffee Company · Unspecified

Starbucks stainless steel straw that was included with my stainless steel drink cup is very sharp. While bringing the straw to my mouth I have both chipped the enamel off my front tooth as well as cut my lip.

1/8/2015 · Incident, No Injury · Dollar General Corporation · Georgia

The product is a plastic flexible drinking straw. The straw breaks off at the bendable part of the straw. Several straws broke off when children and adults were inserting the straws into drinks. They also break when extending the length of the straw. The break leaves a one inch piece of plastic that could be a choking hazard.

1/6/2023 · Incident, No Injury · Pattern Brands · Indiana

Bought a set of straws from GIR. One of the straws had a piece of silicone still in the shaft of the straw. This chunk of silicon shot into my mouth first time using it. Nearly choked. I handwashed the product before using.

Product Recalls

Search for active and past recalls related to drinking straws on the CPSC website.

Compare beyond Containers, Tableware & Packaging

Nationwide peers by danger score, ER volume & hospitalization

Three PlainSafety-derived comparison paths for Drinking Straws: cross-group products nearest on danger score (36/100), estimated annual ER visits (3,263/yr), and hospitalization share (2.8%). Same-group neighbours stay in Related Products above.

Read with this product

About this data

CPSC National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) 2005–2024 and SaferProducts.gov consumer incident reports form the basis of this page. Injury estimates are based on a nationally representative probability sample of U.S. hospital emergency departments.

According to PlainSafety's CPSC NEISS corpus ranking, Drinking Straws ranks #370 of 838 scored CPSC product categories by PlainSafety danger score and #343 of 838 by 20-year estimated ER injury volume.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does drinking straws rank on danger score versus ER volume?

Among 838 scored CPSC product categories, drinking straws ranks #370 by PlainSafety danger score (36/100) and #343 by 20-year estimated ER injury volume (3,263/yr). The two rankings come from the same NEISS extract and are not the same order.

What are the most common injuries from drinking straws?

The most common injury is contusions, abr. to the eyeball, accounting for approximately 12,545 injuries over 20 years.

Are injuries from drinking straws increasing or decreasing?

Stable over 5 years.

Who is most at risk for drinking straws injuries?

The 0-4 age group accounts for the most injuries, with approximately 29,470 cases recorded over 20 years. Males are more frequently injured in this age group.

What happens when someone is injured by drinking straws?

Of all ER visits involving drinking straws, approximately 2.8% result in hospital admission. The majority of patients (97.2%) are treated and released from the emergency department.

How can I report a safety problem with drinking straws?

You can file a consumer incident report at SaferProducts.gov, the official CPSC reporting portal. Reports help the CPSC identify emerging hazards and trigger investigations or recalls. You can also call the CPSC hotline at 1-800-638-2772.

Data on Drinking Straws is compiled directly from CPSC NEISS and SaferProducts.gov records, current through 2024. See our methodology for details.

Disclaimer: This page is for informational purposes only and is not affiliated with the CPSC.

PlainSafety is rendered directly from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recall and incident records, no number is typed in by an editor. Product recall timelines and hazard labels are drawn from CPSC recall records for this product. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.