Washington, April 14 (IANS) More than half the eye injuries treated in emergency rooms due to aerosols involved children 18 years and younger.

Children were the victims in more than half of the emergency room visits for eye injuries related to aerosol cans between 1997 and 2009, say researchers from Brown University.

The youngest children, aged one to 4 years, were the most likely to be hurt with an estimated 2,830 emergency room visits during the study timeframe, the American Journal of Ophthalmology reports.

In all, about 5,927 children 18 and younger came to hospitals with eye injuries from aerosol cans, according to the report's estimates, which put the total for all age groups at 10,765, according to a Brown University statement.

"Any kind of injury like this that is preventable, we'd love to know more about," said study co-author Paul Greenberg, clinical associate professor of surgery at Brown, based in the ophthalmology section.

"Anytime you are talking about a paediatric eye injury, that's especially disconcerting," added Greenberg.

Lead author Carly Seidman, fourth-year student at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown, had been reviewing eye injury data when she noticed a number of aerosol-can related cases, especially in kids.

The figures are estimates based on data from 100 hospital emergency departments in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance Survey.

The most common way people hurt their eyes with aerosol cans was by self-inflicted spray, although sometimes they were hit in the eye when cans burst.