Posts Tagged ‘Suffocation’

What Were They Thinking?

Thursday, March 20th, 2014

The other day a shipment from Amazon arrived at my house. Among the ordered items in the box were two pairs of wool-blend thermal socks, packaged in a plastic bag. I was about to throw the bag away when I spotted the suffocation warning label:

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Huh?

I thought of those SAT-type questions that listed four items and ask you to check the one that doesn’t belong with the rest. So: (A) Babies, (B) Children, (C) Family Pets, (D) Cheese.

Would you be scratching your head for the correct answer?

The reference to le fromage is a really silly addition to a warning required by many state and local governments who’ve addressed the subject of suffocation deaths. Accidental asphyxiation by smothering is what this is all about. The altered label doesn’t follow the advice of the plastic industry trade association recommending use of the template Massachusetts implemented. A Google search found no match for this odd-ball sticker among commercially-available labels. The silly label I came across is still under the radar.

Who might be the wisenheimer author of this?

A rogue roquefort-fiend?

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Notes:

1. A study of the effectiveness of suffocation warning labels (their wording, design, placement), can be found here.

2. As far as I can tell, there is no federal requirement for warning labels.

3. The bad effect plastic wrap can have on cheese is described here.

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