Each year, thousands of children are injured by ingesting articles such as pharmaceutical products. For example, pills, tablets, and capsules of pharmaceutical products are often shaped, sized, and colored for the convenience of adults, yet represent an attractive hazard to young children unaware of the danger of ingesting such products. Young children may also be injured by playing with other pharmaceutical products, such as syringes.
Many pharmaceutical products, such as pills, tablets, capsules, syringes and other such articles, are packaged in so-called blister-type packages or containers to facilitate removal but to inhibit contamination and product tampering. Typically, the article is sandwiched between a layer of transparent or translucent plastic in the form of an outward extension, cavity or blister and a rupturable or puncturable layer. Force applied to the blister in the plastic layer is transmitted to the article, which ruptures or punctures the puncturable layer for removal of the article by the user.
While government regulations require child-resistant caps on bottles and vials of many pharmaceuticals, there exists a need in the art for a device which inhibits the removal by children of articles such as pills, syringes, etc. from blister-type containers.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds