"redesign hot dogs" news and stories

Hot dogs are the most common culprit when kids choke on foods, USA Today reports, citing a new policy statement on children and choking issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

In the policy statement, which was published today online in Pediatrics , the academy says it wants foods like hot dogs to have warning labels or be "redesigned" so that they are less likely to be lodged in the airways of children. Choking on food brings more than 10,000 kids age 14 and under to emergency rooms each year, and approximately 66 to 77 children under 10 die from choking on food every year, the policy statement says. Hot dogs are behind about 17 percent of these food-related asphyxiations, the paper reports.

"The hot dog is the leading type of food that causes death due to choking on food, and the reason is because the hot dog is round, it's roughly the diameter of the back of a child's throat and so it will slide down behind the tongue and will completely block the airway making it impossible for any air to pass," Dr. Gary Smith told Slashfood. "If you wanted to design to the perfect plug for a child's airway, you couldn't do better than a hot dog."