Popping bottles with care: Why a flying champagne cork is a huge injury risk

Don’t start the new year in the emergency room.

Popping bubbly to ring in 2024 may be more dangerous than partiers think, as an international team of ophthalmology experts spread awareness of cork-induced eye injuries ahead of the holiday, calling for the proliferation of screw-on caps among Champagne and sparkling winemakers.

The high-pressured bottle stoppers help maintain the hallmark fizz of the celebratory drink — with the capacity to ruin any party as the cork catapults from its vessel at up to nearly 50 miles per hour.

“A cork can travel from bottle to eye in less than 0.05 seconds, making the blinking reflex ineffective,” the team, lead by the University of Cambridge’s Dr. Ethan Waisberg, wrote in the BMJ. A blunt force eye injury at that speed can cause permanent blindness, retinal detachment and lens dislocation, “among other conditions,” researchers wrote.

Among the data cited, the authors highlighted a 2005 international study that found bottle corks responsible for 20% of eye injuries related to pressurized drinks in the US. Meanwhile, wine drinkers in Hungary — a major wine-producing country — blamed corks for a whopping 71% of such accidents. While the vision for some victims returned, 26% of those injured by bottle corks eventually qualified for legal blindness.

Another 2009 review looked at 34 cases of eye injuries in Italy related to bottle corks or caps where patients had “various degrees of visual impairment and clinical outcomes such as perforation, trauma, and long-term complications.”

“These data emphasize the need for preventive measures, including warning labels and alternative packaging materials, such as a screw cap, to safeguard people,” researchers wrote.

Their warning comes four years after reality star Theo Campbell, of “Love Island” fame, was blinded in one eye after a rogue bottle cork struck him. Despite two eye surgeries to repair his “split” eyeball, he did not recover his vision.

To reduce the chances of injury before the clock strikes midnight, the team offered up some advice from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

First, chill the bottle before opening it since cooling the bottle also reduces pressure and cork velocity. They also recommended against shaking the bottle before opening and facing the bottle away from yourself at a 45-degree angle, pointing away from others, before attempting to open it.

While removing the wire cage around the cork, apply pressure on the cork with the palm of your hand to keep it in place, then place a towel over the cork before gently twisting the bottle to loosen the cork. to combat the upward force of the cork, experts recommend maintaining downward pressure to avoid an unwanted and accidental projectile.