Are Metal Straws Safe?

Many of you may have seen the recent news of a metal straw that pierced a 4-year old boy’s throat and tore an artery to his brain. Horribly scary but luckily he is okay. And a few years back we were stunned by the tragic case of a 60 year-old woman who died after being impaled by a metal straw. These stories have many of us asking: are metal straws safe? While serious injury from metal straws is rare, accidents with metal straws do happen. In 2016 Starbucks recalled 2.5 million metal straws due to reports of injuries.

We always want to encourage people to continue to decline single use straws (unless medically necessary) but it seems to us that rigid straws - metal (or glass) - are not the way to go. If you use metal straws, take care and don’t use them while walking or driving and it’s best not to have children use them at all - since we all know that sitting still and children don’t exactly go together.