Comments on: Deaths as a result of opening plastic packages.

Question: Deaths as a result of opening plastic packages.

Sonic_Molson — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:08:47 -0800

Help me win a bet against my girlfriend. Relates to deaths while opening those pesky plastic packages.

I'm looking for examples of people who died while opening plastic packages.

Yeah, I know it sounds a little crazy. Today I was opening some bike lights that were in a hard plastic package, I was actually frustrated to be seeing the instructions on the back on how to install the batteries and wondering "Well where is the instructions to open the package?!" I ended up using a knife and nearly cutting myself (as usual). With 6.5 billion people on the planet I'm sure that at least one has accidently stabbed themselves to death while tearing these packages open.

The types of packages I am thinking of are the type that mp3 players often come in, or other small but valuable items (ram, tools)

The best sample picture I could find of one is here, not even one of the really tough plastic packages that I experienced today; http://www.ocmodshop.com/zalman7000acu/ZALMAN_BOX_BACK.jpg

I got $5 on this :-) I'll split the profit.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:10:24 -0800

wrap rage is the term you want to google.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:11:30 -0800

you might find this funny.

By: caddis

caddis — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:11:35 -0800

Deaths? I doubt any. Pay your girl friend now and avoid strife in your relationship like this.

By: bella.bellona

bella.bellona — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:12:44 -0800

Probably doesn't help your bet, but I did cut myself quite badly trying to get the packaging off a USB key...

By: caddis

caddis — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:21:40 -0800

60,000? wow, perhaps someone did expire. Heart attack?

By: moonshine

moonshine — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:32:04 -0800

When I was five I cut myself badly trying to cut through some hard plastic binding that held some balloons together. Looking back, I don't recall what exactly I wanted to accomplish...

Not an example of wrap rage and doesn't help you since I didn't die, but I suppose I could have if I had been home alone at the time.

By: tumult

tumult — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:51:35 -0800

It's called Blister Packaging/Plastic and it's usually produced by Formtex, I think. OpenX http://www.myopenx.com/ makes a tool designed specifically open it, so you might want to start your quest for someone who's been killed there.

By: Rhomboid

Rhomboid — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:38:40 -0800

It's also called "clamshell" packaging. I can't find any info about deaths, the best I can find is from this recent Wired news article:

Anecdotally, though, emergency room doctors say they're slammed the week after Christmas with such injuries and see them regularly all year. Dr. Christian Arbelaez, a Boston-area ER physician, sees about a case a week, some as serious as tendon and nerve damage that require orthopedic surgeons to repair.

"I would definitely like to tell (manufacturers) that serious hand injuries are occurring because of this packaging," said Arbelaez, a member of the Trauma Care and Injury Control National Committee of American College of Emergency Physicians. "Especially for people who have jobs that require the use of their hands a lot, this can be detrimental to their careers. There needs to be some kind of change."

By: porpoise

porpoise — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 19:42:22 -0800

I'm looking through pubmed searching for case study and combinations of plastic and packaging. Nothing so far.

Lots of drug-mule associated complications and lots of "ol' grampaw swallowing the plastic/foil packaging" that some drugs come in.

By: Sallyfur

Sallyfur — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:46:30 -0800

I bought a red thumb drive in a package like this.

I was very careful and calm with the scissors I used to cut it open, but cut my meat-thumb clear down to the muscles on the sharp edge of the plastic itself.

I had two red thumbs.

By: nakedcodemonkey

nakedcodemonkey — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 21:35:57 -0800

Like Sallyfur, I've incurred some nasty hand/forearm injuries while painstakingly opening those suckers. No matter how careful you are, it's rigid plastic that snaps its razor sharp edges right back to where they were a second ago (also known as "that @%# place I've been trying to get my hands into for the last hour!").

Best advice: boycott all blister packaging until retailers quit making us pay in blood for their shoplifting problems.

Second best advice: when you give up on the boycott, buy a pair of metal mesh gloves.

Death? Uh, sorry, no info there...

By: Scram

Scram — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 23:47:37 -0800

Not exactly, but they say Tennessee Williams died biting off a child-proof medicine cap.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:11:02 -0800

I've never heard of a death related to this. I think all it would take would be a single death and resulting wrongful death suit to eliminate this packaging entirely, so I'm guessing you're gonna have to pay your gf the 5 smackers.

By: skallas

skallas — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 07:23:31 -0800

These are called clamshells. Retailers demand them because theyre difficult to open thus harder to steal from while on display on store shelves. I've seen reports about injuries but nothing about deaths. Its actually pretty difficult to kill yourself with a knife unless you're really trying hard.

By: sergeant sandwich

sergeant sandwich — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:28:56 -0800

for what it's worth, my mom just had to undergo a good 8-hour surgery after she nearly cut her fucking thumb off trying to open one of these things with a knife. i suppose it's possible she could've hit an artery and bled to death if nobody'd been around to take her to the hospital or whatever, but it seems rather unlikely.

By: IndigoRain

IndigoRain — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:20:29 -0800

Another personal anecdote: While trying to open my Targus laptop cooling pad, some plastic broke off and hit my just underneath my left eye, leaving a nasty scratch. Thank goodness it didn't hit any higher!

I got an Open-X immediately afterwards (google it.)

By: zackdog

zackdog — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:48:27 -0800

I was in the fast lane of the freeway trying to open a taperecorder package with my teeth when ahhhhhhh