Lawn darts

Starting in the late twentieth century, the safety of metal-tipped lawn darts was called into question in several countries.

Some versions of lawn darts include a smaller bullseye ring for additional points.

In the year 1970, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classified sharp-pointed lawn darts as a "mechanical hazard," a designation which prohibited the sale of lawn darts, unless the darts satisfied three requirements: (1) Be packaged with specified warning label that advised of the potential for serious injury and cautioned parents to keep the product out of the reach of children, (2) Include instructions on usage with warnings to avoid use when other persons or animals are within the field of play, and (3) Not be sold in toy stores or toy departments.

[4][5][6] The Consumers Union and the Children's Foundation petitioned the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), a different agency, to go further, asking that HEW use the emergency provisions of the Child Protection and Toy Safety Act of 1969 to ban outright, in addition to several other toys, "outdoor games with 13‐inch pointed darts weighing more than five ounces each.

[9] The darts were purchased as part of a set of various lawn games and were stored in the garage, never having been played before the incident occurred.

[9][10] As a partial result of Snow's lobbying, on December 19, 1988, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission introduced an outright ban on lawn darts in the U.S.[11] In the previous eight years, 6,100 Americans had visited hospital emergency rooms as the result of lawn dart accidents.

During the week when the commission voted to ban the product, an 11-year-old girl in Tennessee was hit by a lawn dart and fell into a coma.

As of 2024, a modified, safer version of lawn darts with a blunt-tip design may be purchased in the United States.