Q-tips are fascinating in that
their primary use is actively discouraged by their makers and medical professionals.
Or, as the Washington Post put it,
"Q-tips are one of the only, if not the only, major consumer products whose main purpose is precisely the one the manufacturer explicitly warns against."
"In 1990, a piece published in The Washington Post joked that telling people to use the swabs on "the outer surfaces of the ear
without entering the ear canal," as Q-tips packages do, was akin to
asking smokers to dangle cigarettes from their lips without ever
lighting them....
On the FDA's website, it does say that swabs are classified as
medical devices because they're "used to apply medications to, or to
take specimens from, a patient." But it also says the same for cotton
balls.
Neither the FDA nor the CPSC could explain why the
commission was tracking injuries associated with cotton balls, but not
cotton swabs. The CPSC suggested reaching out to the FDA. The FDA
suggested reaching out to the CPSC. In the end, no one had an answer.
But
the discrepancy has a significant effect: It means it's much harder to
quantify the number of Q-tips-related injuries that occur each year in
the United States. The FDA houses complaints on its website, but doesn't
add them up.
"It would be very tedious to figure out how many
injuries associated with cotton swabs were reported each year," said
Deborah Kotz, an FDA spokeswoman.""