Metal straws should be used with caution, a coroner has said, after a retired jockey died when she fell onto one which impaled her eye and caused a traumatic brain injury.

Elena Struthers-Gardner, 60, was carrying a mason-jar style drinking glass with a screw-top lid in her kitchen in Poole, Dorset, when she collapsed.

The 10ins stainless steel straw entered her left eye socket and pierced her brain.

Today a coroner said metal drinking straws should never be used with a lid that fixes them in place, and “great care should be taken” while using them.

The eco-friendly straws have increased in popularity as a replacement for single-use plastic straws as part of the fight against plastic waste.