Lets instill a very strict nationwide ban on anything small. Lets also enable mandatory helmet and goggle wear at all times for everyone. No exceptions.

Require all consumers to own food processors with only one button "liquify". Even if you do that, we will need a lable "Swallowing improperly can cause suffocation if liquid enters the lungs."

This is a case of bad parenting. Until the kid is old enough to understand choking hazzards of any food, the parent needs to watch them eat this food item or chop it to bits like the wife and I did for our kids.

Perhaps you like these stickers telling you not to be stupid.

"Do no operate machine (snow blower) on roofs."

"Do not put hand in chain while chain is in motion" (chain saws)

What a sorry education system we have.

Lets just make are labeling system a joke, Make it a pamphlet!

61 choking deaths in children?! That sounds pretty good if you ask me, but I'm sure that if we spend another 45 million we could probably get that down to 59. Not trying to put a price on a kid's life but there comes a point when you just can't make things much safer. This is just the perils of living in 3D and unless we liquify food kids will choke sooner or later.

I wonder what the stats are for adults choking? Why are there no warnings for adults? Why is there no national drive to prevent adults from biting off more than they can chew? We could make it mandatory that all restaraunts have to serve only bite sized, pre chopped food.

What we should do is make it the responsibilityof parents to learn the Heimlich for children and infants. Forcing labeling and liquifying food is not going to amount to much.

Warning: Breathing may increase your chances of inhaling pollution, foreign matter, fumes, horrible smells, and germs. Symptoms may including coughing and/or choking, dizziness, nausea, headache, or getting sick.

DB, I saw a warning on a costume cape. I swear, it is real. Warning: Does not give the ability to fly.

Or one that really got my friend and I: a toaster over. Do not place in microwave or oven.

*facepalm*

Warning: Does not give the ability to fly.

Have seen that one too - blows my mind b/c you know it's there only after some kid thought to them self: "well, if they can fly on TV with the cape on..."

I think grape growers should be required to engineer a new grape that won't cause choking. Same thing with popcorn growers. And peanut growers. And.....

We don't need another regulation. I'm sadden about children dying from choking, but adults can die from choking too. Everyone needs to know how to perform the heimlich maneuver, cut their food into small peices - especially for children, chew their food well, and not talk while eating. Of course, there is still the horrible possibility of choking, especially for young children as they put everything in their mouths and don't usually chew their food well. Choking is a terrible accident - not the fault of food or toy manufacturers.

How can popcorn kill you? The starch melts away in seconds in your mouth. Try it, all your left with is the shell of the kernel. It'll make you cough, sure, but it won't block your windpipe.

Apparently, you can choke on popcorn:

http://xo.typepad.com/blog/2004/08/img_alt_srchttp_150.html

I am amazed someone would be idiotic enough to write such a useless article, but one must consider the morons that would actually accept such an article for publication. This article assumes everyone has a common sense deficit. Overwhelmingly almost all people have common sense and for those few that don't, they would be recipients of the Darwin awards.

I agree with you Ed, this more of a common sense. Parents should also be teaching their kids to eat it the proper way. Its a case also of bad parenting.

Dave even said that labeling system is a joke, instead a pamphlet? I laugh on that...just a warning label is good enough, pamphlet is just too much information...you might recommend sometime a book, its even worst, !!! LOL

I'm with DB, Checkmate.... wish I could remember some now, but my kids and I use to laugh our asses off at some of these 'warnings'. When they ask why, I always tell them...

it's because if they don't, some moron will get a lawyer and try to sue. People will do most anything for an easy buck; I remember that dumb-a lawsuit against Mickey D's for having their coffee 'too hot'.

It's all in the parenting on this one; know emergency procedures if choking occurs (even popping a trache tube in if extreme measures required... it's not hard), use common sense, and what is an appropriate age for what.

Accidents will always happen, and yes.. I do feel for those that have lost. But it's inevitable, and the numbers as so minute..... as an above poster stated, we live in a 3d world. Nothing will EVER BE 100% safe, nor any thing EVER 100% idiot proof.

Just lawyers gettin' some of theirs, and the FDA feeling useful....

I'm 41, and because of 'hazards', a good deal of treats, toys, etc.. that I grew up with ended up being either modified or done away with. Over the years, I tended to look at that as being more of an excuse to do away with quality on some things and ready us for the cheap and generic versions, in the name of 'safety'.

We clearly need more warning labels about the hazards of not reading warning labels (or having any common sense).

You could drown in a inch of water, you can choke on almost anything, etc, Sorry that is part of life. You can not eliminate all the hazards of daily living, you just have to watch your children closely. This story reminds me the old broadway play called "Camelot" where they could legislate the weather, moonlight must appear by 9:00 pm , ect. I am sorry that her child died but labeling everything that could possibly cause choking which if you think about it is almost everything is not logical.

This is getting out of hand. Teach your children not to take big bites. Cut the food up when they are small. We need to have some common sense, which seems to be in very short supply these days. Is there going to be a warning label on water? How do you suppose they will find a way to put a warning label on the air that we breathe daily?

Just what we need, the government telling us how to eat a frickin hot dog. And I can even envision insurance companies jumping on the wagon. I can see it now: Insurance company; "Did you read and accept the terms and conditions attached to the hot dog package before consumtion or serving to other consumers? No? Then coverage denied." I'm sure there are people thinking that the government can protect us from ourselves. It seems to me that the government has bitten off more pork than they can chew in recent years and is in need of the Heimlich maneuver. One more reason for smaller government.

Oh for heaven's sake. Common sense says that a hotdog can indeed be a choking hazard to a small child. Duh. Cut it up small enough and SUPERVISE the child to ensure he/she is CHEWING.

We do not need new labels on packages like this. Just ridiculous.

I sympathize with her for the loss of her child, but gee willikens - COMMON SENSE PLEASE!

I'm wondering how I made it to 46? I ate hot dogs raw. I raced and wrecked my bicycle WITHOUT a helmet, elbow pads and concussions.

Did my generation just forget what we did as children? Why all the knee jerk reactions, regulation and litigation to all the things that DID NOT kill us.

"I'm wondering how I made it to 46? I ate hot dogs raw. I raced and wrecked my bicycle WITHOUT a helmet, elbow pads and concussions.

Did my generation just forget what we did as children? Why all the knee jerk reactions, regulation and litigation to all the things that DID NOT kill us."

Google "survivor bias".

But I do agree that this was ridiculous. Not to cause pain to the grieving mother, but can she honestly say that if there was a label, she would have done something differently?

That's the point... common sense is common sense. My different take on this is that the FDA is overly involved in things, and is continuing to do so in order to keep itself 'important'.

I also blame quite a bit on lawyers, and tort bull@!$%#. What was once (and still occasionally) necessary due to neglect, damages, etc... has gotten blown WAY WAAAAYYYY out of proportion, and is nothing more than a money scheme. Both ways, actually; lawyers and government...(which, how many lawyers are in our government 'representative' positions?)

Adler, a Warren, N.J. attorney who pushed for more warning labels after her son died in 2001, says she hopes the academy's efforts will work. Several efforts to pass federal legislation for labels have failed in Congress.

Really, seriously really? Maybe her son might have been alive if she didn't ignore on how to use the heimlich maneuver, which is posted in alot of resturants. I would expect her to learn basic CPR and heimlich maneuver which will help out more than warning labels on everything.

And the response on the McDonald's lawsuit, it wasn't dumb and was clearly McDonald's fault. They served their coffee 20% hotter than other resturaunts and the elderly ended up getting 3rd degree burns. Yes it suppose to be hot, but not so hot that it causes serious injuries. I would expect 2nd degree but not 3rd. When you get blisters, thats 2nd degree. 3rd degree is alot worse. Think of it as a well done meat. Thats 3rd degree. And everyone is guilty of spilling their drinks (cold or hot)

.... and outside of Starbucks, for my money? Mickey D's has the best around. Spilled both many times myself, so has my 80 year old father while driving. Not pleasant, but worth a lawsuit? Please....

Hardly worth stating, but should folks be lucky enough to live that long, they probably know how to drink their coffee, and if they suck it right away, too bad, so sad. I wouldn't have even responded to that, but... well, I'm not going to further. Post 1.21.

That goddamnn fat bitch should quit filling her face and quit trying to push more laws and mandates on the american people!!!

And HOW long have kids been eating hot dogs?? When does it end! SEriously!

This a bunch of bs and the continuing pussification of America. I once choked on rice and had to have the Heimlich Maneuver performed on me. You wanna label rice too?

Okay, so where was the freaking mother???? He is a lawyer, thus an intelligent person, she should have known that hot dogs, unless chopped into peanut sizes can cause choking in a child.

Better yet, where the hell was she when they were teaching abdominal thrusts in cpr and first aid????????? Being a lawyer, I bet the first thoughts into her brain were, "oh good, I get to sue!!"

How can parents be so stupid??

I began babysitting when I was 12, that was in the early 80's. The moms I sat for back then gave me explicit directions in cutting up hot dogs, grapes, etc, because of the danger of choking.

When I had children of my own ten years ago, I again heard all the same warnings.

This is NOT news. Choking hazards, particularly for hard candies, hot dogs, grapes, suckers, gum, etc have been around as long as those foods have been around.

Maybe instead of warning labels, we should require every parent and care provider to watch Field of Dreams.

Thank you! Me either. It is tragic that these things happen, but common sense must be the rule. Common sense says you watch your kid like a hawk while he's eating; even then accidents happen. We had choking incidents three times with our children when they were growing up; but we didn't sue the toy company, or lobby for legislation to label every single item in our household that was less than 1 inch wide that could be swallowed, or take away every single thing that "might" hurt them. You use things at your own risk, all through life.

Add a warning for a 4 year old to read? Or one for the parents to read-do you also need to have a large font warning that parents that don't read the warnings on the package are responsible for anything that happens to anyone who eats form tyhe package?

Uh, no. Common sense needs to be the theme. Accidents will always happen, we learn form them-but this is just another way to blame someone else for your actions. We need to outlaw lawyers-they are responsible for the destruction of the American Market System.

How about parents ask their kids to CHEW THEIR FOOD! Kids can choke on anything. Take a CPR class. I got one free at work by volunteering to be apart of the safety response team. There's a world of free places to get educated on kid's safety. Don't blame the food.

I have a 6 1/2 yr old who had to be re-taught how to eat. He had a dysfuctional swallow. He had to learn how to chew food and drink liquids all over. In addition he had a Nissen done where they take the opening of his stomach and wrap it arounds his esphogus. He can't throw up at all. He tends to be very impulsive and still has poor eating skills even at his age. I worry that he could to choke on something and to be honest I am not sure if even the heimelich would be ok to do or successfull since he can't throw up at all. However, I don't take everything from him. I to use common sense. If you are going to eat a hard piece of candy or a lollipop or hot dogs etc he does it with me around. I trust that if it's going to happen it will happen. Use common sense and lots of paryers.

I'm sorry to hear about your son, Angie, but the Heimlich should work on anyone including your son. It expells food from the trachia (wind pipe) by forcing the diaphragm to compress the lungs. It doesn't cause regurgitation or require it and should work for your son if he ever does choke.

radagast: right on the button

Warning labels yes - bur for God's sake redesigning the Hot Dog! Life is dangerous - I know I grew up with five brothers and all a year apart! A parents crusade can go to far and ultimately be misguided and for some like a second career or "I'm ready for my close up Mr. DeMille). Honestly, if you drink enough water you can drown (let's drain all the pools), driving or being driven in a card is dangerous (let's ban all internal combustion engines), Lighting comes out of the sky (let's all stay indoor all the time)!

The sad part is, you can still choke on it after it has been chewed. Not disagreeing with you, just adding on.

I think the only way to prevent all childhood accidents is to put a warning label right on newborns' foreheads for the parents.

"Warning: unpredictable behavior, will eat, climb up, jump off of, and run into anything!"

radagast, don't forget a special label for boys saying "will pee up to ten feet in the air once diaper is off".

I totally agree. This is just a "CYA" for the industry. Kind of reminds me of McD's putting a "warning" on the coffee. My heart does go out to anyone losing a child, but I guess the parents wouldn't be able to live with themselves unless they blamed someone else.

realtormd, the McDonald's incident is actually different. The one where the woman burned herself was indeed McDonald's fault. They were supposed to have the coffee heated at a certain degree; there's were set much higher than it was required. They were also warned by some group or something that their coffee is set at level that no one can drink and was told to change. The manager didn't do it.

If you burn yourself with coffee, do you need skin graffes like the woman did? That is the difference. We're not talking a simple burn here. She sued that McDonald's for medical bills and basically won the case because of the accounts that the manager was told beforehand to lower the temperature on the coffee machine.

Also, the woman didn't insist that the coffee cups to have a warning on them. That was McDonald's PR dept. that did that as a way to try to make themselves look somewhat good to the public.

A few years ago, a toddler needed skin graffes because Starbucks hot chocolate was too hot. According to their (Starbucks) policy, the hot chocolate for children is 'colder' than an adult hot chocolate. This is a safety reason for children an adults; if you spill something hot, it shouldn't be hot enough to burn off your skin to the point that you need skin graffes.

Wrong the coffee incident was the woman's fault. She knew the coffee was hot and yet she put in between her legs and drove off while trying to open it. It was her fault for putting herself at risk for a burn injury. I was in my early 20's at the time of this incident and even I knew that coffee even at the right temp is still hot enough to burn you good.

The woman had no common sense just like a lot of parents these days. Why do you think we no longer have cold medicines for children? It is because of lazy parents not reading the warnings and or dosing instructions and overdosing their kids.

Your not part of the solution, you are actually part of the problem.

checkmate, the woman was dumb enough to hold the coffee in her lap while driving...ANYONE that dumb should be cleansed from the gene pool. While i agree with Shawn, it's sad that it happened, people nowadays will sue because there are outlets for them to sue, associations that haven't been around as long as hot dog and other foods dangerous for kids to eat without having them cut up properly first. How long has the American Academy of Pediatrics been around? Or the FDA? Certainly not as long as hot dogs... (not sure about the FDA) but all these groups come out of the woodwork to convince us that we should be able to have their support because they see something dangerous that's always been dangerous but no with labels on everything under the sun, we don't have to blame ourselves if we take the risk, we say, "Oh the label wasn't specific enough so I didn't think to take any precautions." These groups are fueling public stupidity and I'm not so sure how okay I am with that...my grandparents and great grandparents rasied their kids with the same basic foods, same basic toys as I was raised with and did we ever sue anyone when we fell of our bikes and scraped our knees? No, we went inside to get a bandage and go back out and play. It's common sense.

And if the woman didn't put it between her legs and she spilled it on herself (someone bumps into her, etc.), I guess she still deserved the burn. I wonder if you could say that to a loved one that accidentally gets burned while holding a cup of coffee that is WAY TOO FREAKIN' HOT.

Also, the woman WASN'T driving when this happened. She was in her car while it was parked.

From wikipedia:

On February 27, 1992, Stella Liebeck, a 79-year-old woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, ordered a 49¢ cup of coffee from the drive-through window of a local McDonald's restaurant. Liebeck was in the passenger's seat of her Ford Probe, and her grandson Chris parked the car so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee.

This is what got McDonald's SCREWED: McDonald's claimed that the reason for serving such hot coffee in its drive-through windows was that those who purchased the coffee typically were commuters who wanted to drive a distance with the coffee; the high initial temperature would keep the coffee hot during the trip.^[4] However, this contradicts the company's own research that showed customers actually intend to consume the coffee while driving to their destination.

It also screws them over because you have to consider how many people have went through the drive-through, got their coffee, and then go into the parking lot or somewhere close by. By that reasoning, the coffee would still be too hot to drink because you are not driving a far enough distance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liebeck_v._McDonald's_Restaurants

And something else: McDonald's knew about the dangers of the high temperature:

During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700
claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims
involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This
history documented McDonalds' knowledge about the extent and nature of
this hazard.

http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm

Plaintiffs' expert, a scholar in thermodynamics applied to human skin
burns, testified that liquids, at 180 degrees, will cause a full
thickness burn to human skin in two to seven seconds. Other testimony
showed that as the temperature decreases toward 155 degrees, the extent
of the burn relative to that temperature decreases exponentially. Thus,
if Liebeck's spill had involved coffee at 155 degrees, the liquid would
have cooled and given her time to avoid a serious burn.. . .

. . .Post-verdict investigation found that the temperature of coffee at the
local Albuquerque McDonalds had dropped to 158 degrees fahrenheit.

And here's an interesting coffee fact.

The Coffee:
The McDonald's coffee Ms. Liebeck purchased was served at a temperature of between 180 and 190 degrees Fahrenheit. For home use, coffee is generally brewed at 135 to 140 degrees. If spilled on skin, any beverage heated to between 180 and 190 degrees will cause third-degree burns in two to seven seconds.

http://www.canf.bc.ca/briefs/mcdonalds.html

Checkmate....

Did you know the reason McDonald's brewed their coffee that hot?

Because customers overwhelmingly said in an internal survey that their coffee needed to be hotter.

What if Ms. Liebeck ordered tea? How do you make tea? You BOIL water at 212 degrees!!!! Should McDonald's or any other restaurant for that matter, not be permitted to serve tea???

Bob, where is this survey about the coffee being hotter?

The problem is this:

You get burned by coffee a few times, from different places. Nothing serious. Then one day, you get burned by coffee at some place and your skin is coming off to the point that you need medical attention at a hospital. Now, tell me that you don't think that is a potential hazard to other people? Or something more horrifying, a child runs into you and you spill that extremely hot coffee on them and their skin comes off.

If the McDonald's employee had spilled it on the customer then I would say it would be McDonald's fault, but that is not what happened. The fact is that SHE spilled it on HERSELF and got burned. If I spill coffee on myself and get burned, then I would blame myself because I spilled it. I don't care if the coffee is the temperature of basaltic lava, once that coffee is safely in your possession then it is up to you to drink it correctly.

Drinking it would severely burn your mouth. The thing is, coffee that can burn your skin off should not be served to customers. That is way too hot.

So you are saying the hundreds of thousands of people that drank their coffee before this moron were just lucky and never spilt it on themselves? Or, maybe they understand that coffee is hot and took the necessary precautions to keep from harming themselves? Or if they did hurt themselves they realized that it was there own damn fault?

I have burned my mouth countless times on extremely hot pizza and once got a blister on my lip because the hot cheese stuck to it. Should I sue the pizza joint because their pizza was hot enough to blister skin? Of course not, because all I had to do was wait a few more minutes and let it COOL down.

Question: How long does it take for coffee to cool down from 190 degrees? No, seriously, honest question. When you think about it, if you have to wait a long time to eat/drink something what is the point of ordering it in the first place if it is way too hot?

So you are saying the hundreds of thousands of people that drank their coffee before this moron were just lucky and never spilt it on themselves?

You also have to figure in how many people didn't report the burns, which McDonald's heated their coffee to 190 degrees (not every McD's did this), when they did it (all the time, occasionally, etc.) Plus, you have people that may have ordered a coffee, tasted it, then threw it out because of it being too hot or they didn't like the taste (it's cheap coffee).

Blisters are not third degree burns. You can't compare a third degree burn with a second degree burn (usually form blisters). Second degree burns usually don't require skin graffes.

It is, my stepdad has the same problem!

I'm pretty sure that I've seen warnings on stoves stating that very thing. There are so many warnings on everyday items that I feel that they lose their value. I would call it warning overload.

Blasphemy!

lol, lol, lol

MM Amen!

Too funny, that's just what I was thinking (though I do love a hot dog now & then). I find it a little strange that a grown woman with an education needs a label to tell her that her four year old could possibly choke on a hot dog, even if it's cut in pieces. I mean, really? Considering anyone can choke on anything, it's a wonder anyone lives past the age of two!

Everyone has to have a good hot dog with chili and onions once in awhile. But a hot dog is the poster child for cancer. The chemicals they put in it, sodium nitrite for one, are bad stuff. Moderation is the key.

ANYTHING can be a poster child for cancer, illness, diseases, etc. As you said, moderation is they key.

Posterchilds for cancer (that I have heard people link together): meat, plastic, cell phones, junk food/fast food, alcohol, microwaves, tobacco, certain types of metal, x-rays, radio, tvs, etc. If you really think about it, just about anything can give you cancer.

To those who say this is a fault of the education system, well the kid was only 4 years old, and not in the education system yet. Secondly it has ALL to do with our abused legal system, lawyers willing to take on these foolish frivolous cases with little way for our judicial system to reject them for consideration. Like the McDonalds crotch burning lady. Shakespeare was right...

Hear, Hear!

You need a license to drive a car/motorcycle/boat/airplane, fish, hunt but we don't require one to give birth and raise ANOTHER HUMAN BEING!

How many times must I hear parents leaving their children in a car on a hot summer’s day, really!?

Maybe punishments should fit the crimes: Parents stuck in a car until they die, this mother choking on a hot dog, rapist will get raped, etc.

I know ...the guy in that article almost drowned his kid in the tub! LOL

Same goes for me w/that penny...or maybe it was my brother....my mom can't remember which one of us it was anymore. We were the 7th & 8th kids; by then, she took it all in stride.