Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

Found on www.angrywhiteguy.com
Attack of the killer Hot Dogs

Doctors Urging for a Safer, Choke-Free Hot Dog

When 4-year-old Eric Stavros Adler choked to death on a piece of hot dog, his anguished mother never dreamed that the popular kids’ food could be so dangerous.

Some food makers including Oscar Mayer have warning labels about choking, but not nearly enough, says Joan Stavros Adler, Eric’s mom.

The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. The nation’s largest pediatricians group is calling for sweeping changes in the way food is designed and labeled to minimize children’s chances for choking.

Choking kills more than 100 U.S. children 14 years or younger each year and thousands more — 15,000 in 2001 — are treated in emergency rooms. Food, including candy and gum, is among the leading culprits, along with items like coins and balloons. Of the 141 choking deaths in kids in 2006, 61 were food-related.

The frankfurter aka the “hot dog” has been around since about 1480 AD the sausage in casings have been around since as early as 900 BC both similar in shape and have been eating and enjoyed billions upon billions of people countless times over the last 2500 years but now they need a warning label… Oh Lord give me strength!

I sorry this lady lost her child nothing could be worse than a parent losing a child, but to change the shape of design of a food that has been around 2500 is just ridiculous. How about you be the parent and teach your child to chew their food and if that’s to much work on you then slice the hot dog up and if that still to much burden on you to be a responsible parent then don’t give them the damn hot dogs in the first place – don’t punish an ancient food type for your short-coming as a overseer of your child’s well being.

You don’t change the shape of the wheel because people get run over. The reality is it is not societies or the government’s responsibility to be your child’s nanny and it is sad that 100 kids a year die from choking accidents. The reality is 1800’s child mortality was a 100 times or more higher than it is today and the further reality is you can not eliminate every danger for your children. But why is child mortality lower today? Simple science and medicine and the science says chew your damn food before swallowing and leave my hot dogs alone.

Let’s do the cold heartless task of risk management something industry and government does daily – nobody wants anyone to die choking, especially children and while the story states that 100 children a year die choking it doesn’t not say how many are the result of hot dogs. You make think it’s a little cold to think of it in terms of risk management, but at some point reality has to enter into it and for the record the leading caused of child mortality is auto accidents at 7,677 (2003) drowning 1,062 (2003) and sadly suicide at 1,737 (2003). The facts are every year American eat more then 150 million hot dogs on the 4th of July and over 2 billion in the month of July alone. So one could conservatively estimate that Americans eat about 8-10 billion hot dogs a year and the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to change a entire industry? In other words you stand a far better chance of winning the lottery than choking on a hot dog. Now we’re talking hot dogs alone, not Little Smokies, Brats, Sausage links etc. So I fail to see that based on the volume of consumption verses the health risk an industry wide change is merited. It’s just not a viable option and as I’ve said I don’t want anyone to die choking on a hot dog especially children, but at some point personal responsibility kicks in and if a child is too young to exercise that responsibility then the parent needs to step up and be the parent.