Choking down a hot dog

Hot dogs are the quintessential American food, but they may soon be in for a redesign. The American Academy of Pediatrics are calling for hot dog manufacturers to redesign frankfurters to make them less of a choking hazard to youngsters. If the redesign is out of the question, the Academy is hoping for warning labels on hot dog packages.

Choking is actually one of the leading causes of accidental death among children, and, according to the Academy, hot dogs are responsible for about 17 percent of food-related choking incidents. The publication Pediatrics published a study on non-fatal choking incidents. Among the more than 17,000 children aged 14 and younger included in the study, some 60 percent choked on food, 31 percent on non-food objects, and 9 percent was unknown.

Non-food items that have possible choking hazards must have warning labels as per the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s requirements. However, these regulations do not affect food, even though more than half of non-fatal choking incidents involve food.

For more information, see this article.

This was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 and is filed in the Public Safety categories.