From TONY NEWMAN
Re: ‘Design for the third age’ (13 June). As a milkman serving quite
a number of single elderly people, I am regularly called in to their homes,
by them, to help them open sealed jars and other containers with screw caps.
Many elderly people have problems with the standard ‘child-proof’ cap
because they lack the necessary strength to push down and twist at the same
time. They also have problems with larger, normal lids such as pickle-jar
lids, because they are unable to apply a strong grip when twisting a tight-fitting
cap.
I think there is a good case, with many screw lids and caps, for the
printing of an instruction on the container, ‘hold lid/cap under hot running
water for about one minute to enable lid/cap to expand slightly’. I find
this often helps when even I have trouble with them sometimes.
Tony Newman Abingdon, Oxfordshire
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