
Designing a Choke-free Hot Dog - robg
http://www.fastcompany.com/1564477/oh-i-wish-i-weren-t-an-oscar-meyer-weiner?partner=homepage_newsletter
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baddspellar
There's a good article on stats.org that examines the statistics and concludes
that this whole thing, as with many public health stories, is overblown:
<http://stats.org/stories/2010/choking_hot_dog_feb23_10.html>

The key finding: "it is reasonable to assume, based on this data, that the
number of children who die from choking on hot dogs is somewhere between 1.5
and 5 per year in the United States. The risk is overwhelmingly to children
aged three and under, based on the natural tendency of infants to put stuff in
their mouths. While each death is a terrible tragedy, it is not clear that
this is something that this amounts to a “significant and unacceptable choking
hazard” to the public warranting recall procedures, product changes and more
warnings than already exist. The problem with the American Academy of
Pediatrics paper is that it uses percentages without the context of frequency,
so that you end up comparing percentage fatalities for widely different time
periods without any indication of the actual number of deaths."

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ktsmith
I'd be much more interested to know how many parents of children that have
died from choking were trained in CPR techniques. I would be willing to bet
that almost none of them were. Having a one year old and having had to clear
his airway once myself and having watched my wife do it twice, I find it
appalling that more people don't bother with this type of training. It doesn't
take long, isn't expensive, and can save not only the life of your own child
but the life of someone else as well. Even with the appropriate training you
won't always be successful and a 911 call may be necessary, but being able to
try to clear the airway while you wait several minutes for responders to
arrive can mean the difference between life, death, and brain damage from lack
of oxygen.

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mcantor
I feel like this post, the essay on the phrase "it turns out," and the post on
eating slower to reduce caloric intake, all showed up at the same time for a
reason.

"It turns out, eating slower will help you avoid choking on hot dogs, too."

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jsz0
How about parents just not be idiots and cut the hot dog up into small pieces
for their children? The fact this is even an issue just shows how much common
sense we've lost as a species. It's much better for parents to have the burden
of responsibility than relying on the entire food industry to cater to their
needs. Personally I don't think the food industry should be obligated to help
parents be dumber and less engaged in their children's safety. If someone
makes a "kid safe hotdog" will people buy it? Absolutely. My concern is it
makes parents less aware of other risks of choking if they have an expectation
that any food item for children has no choking risks. That is impossible. If
your child scarfs down food without chewing they can choke on almost anything.
As a parent it's your obligation and responsibility to prevent it.

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ZeroGravitas
Turn them into meat-based cephalopods with Octodog

<http://www.octodog.net/>

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lhorie
Given that the rate of deaths atributed to diet-related conditions is several
orders of magnitude higher, I think this is trying to optimize for the wrong
metric.

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fragmede
How about jumbo franks? I can't see a 4 yr old could swallow without chewing
first, at which point, it is chewed into smaller bits and thus no choking.

Alternately, an accordion-like zig-zag groove lengthwise (like a line of
ketchup/mustard) could ensure a piece that was lodged was not wider than each
groove, and thus would be unstable enough to not block the airway.

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eplanit
Given that the root cause of nearly all the world's problems is over-
population, we should recognize that we need to build _more_ opportunities for
"Darwinian Correction" into society. So leave the Hot Dog alone, and leave the
Golden Gate Bridge alone. :-)

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vital101
All jokes aside, I didn't realize that there was actually a hot dog choking
problem. I can't say I wouldn't give a "choke free" hot dog a try though.
Eating a coil of meat could be fun.

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jrmurad
The only student I know to have died on campus during my K-12 education was a
middle schooler who choked on a hot dog in the cafeteria.

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alilja
I feel like this is another attempt of humans to avoid natural selection.

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alilja
Now I feel like a dick, re: the post above me.

