Due to frequent cases of food asphyxiation of children, American doctors demand that on products like popcorn and hot dogs a warning label is placed that warns about the risk.

Labels and signs, warning that some toys can be dangerous for children because they can swallow them or even to suffocate with them, became common and legally prescribed method for avoiding tragedies in many countries of the world.  However, such regulations do not yet exist for hazardous food.

In July 2006, Texan Patrick Hale made popcorn in a microwave for his children and sat with them to watch TV. When he stood for a moment to change the channel, he heard some strange sound. He turned and saw his two-year-old daughter Alison choking and changing color.

He tried to dislodge the popcorn with blows to her back and finger swipes down her throat, but he failed. He called the ambulance, but it was too late. When Alison arrived at the hospital, her heart had already stopped beating.  An autopsy showed that she inhaled pieces of popcorn in trachea and lungs.


American Academy of Pediatrics believes that it is time to change the law. They point out that food should be subjected to the same criteria that are applied on toys.  They are asking now from the government to introduce labels for food that has been proven to be hazardous.

“You have a SuperBall that, by government regulation, has to carry warnings telling people it’s a risk to young children and you can’t market it to them, yet you can have the same identical shape and size gumball and there are no restrictions or requirements,” said Dr. Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy, at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

The Academy also urges manufacturers to redesign the most dangerous food products, especially hot dogs, which are at the very top of the chart of hazardous food.

This initiative many ridiculed on the Internet and suggested that parents themselves reshape hot dogs by simply cutting them in small pieces. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council stated that they will not redesign a thing.

However, food designer Eugene D. Gagliardi Jr., has shown that it is possible to do some small and positive changes. His new hot dogs look like ordinary, however, when opened and cooked, they break apart into eight slices that are easy to swallow.


In 2001, about 17,500 children 14 and younger were treated in emergency departments for choking, and 60 percent of the episodes were caused by food. In 2000, 160 children died from an obstruction of the respiratory tract. Children younger than 4 are at the highest risk.

Pediatricians are reminding that children are developing the ability to properly chew and prepare food for swallowing between their third and fourth year. Some U.S. manufacturers of hot dogs have put labels with warnings on their products, on their own initiative. But pediatricians say that such initiatives are not enough and that such a thing must be obligatory with new legislation.