Washington, Jan 5 (IANS) Beware of innocuous kitchen spoons - they can be unwittingly dangerous, especially when administering liquid medicine.
Former cold and flu sufferers were asked to pour one teaspoon of nighttime flu medicine into kitchen spoons of differing sizes.

Depending upon the size of the spoon, 195 former patients poured an average of eight percent too little or 12 percent too much medicine.

“When pouring into a medium-size tablespoon, participants under-dosed. But when using a larger spoon, they poured too much medicine,” said Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, who led the study.

“Twelve percent more may not sound like a lot, but this goes on every four to eight hours, for up to four days,” Wansink explained. “So, it really adds up to the point of ineffectiveness or even danger.”

In his book Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Wansink shows how smaller plates can unknowingly decrease how much people eat, and how taller glasses can decrease the amount of alcohol poured by even expert bartenders.

“Simply put, we cannot always trust our ability to estimate amounts,” said study co-author, Koert van Ittersum, marketing assistant professor at Georgia Tech.

“In some cases it may not be important, but when it comes to the health of you or your child, it is vital to make an accurate measurement,” added Ittersum.

Wansink and van Ittersum recommend using a proper device - a measuring cap or dropper, or dosing spoon or syringe - to measure liquid medicine, says a Cornell release.

These findings were published in the January issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.