I have to laugh when I look at the way cotton swabs are marketed. Q-Tips brand cotton swabs boast that they have a ‘variety of uses’ which, ironically enough, I’ve never considered. I can’t think of the last time I used a swab for anything than what the packaging explicitly warns you not to use it for – swabbing my ear canals. It would be interesting to survey how many swabbers blatantly ignore the package warnings. Right now the warning is fairly discreet on the package. Maybe more users would quit sticking cotton swabs in their ears if there was a much larger, more imposing Surgeon General’s Warning on all ads and packaging.