# How many people die annually by choking on ballpoint pens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 4, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457 "2004-03-04T03:40:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/1 "2004-03-04T03:40:14Z")
I recently came across the line “On average, about 100 people die from choking on ballpoint pens every year.” Like any good Cecil-educated human being, I tried to check the facts, and not surprisingly came up with a host of hits that all referenced the same list of trivia without regard to original source. So what’s the truth? And how about vending machines, in case anyone can find definitive evidence on how many people those kill? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/2 "2004-03-04T03:50:42Z")
There’s nothing about ball-point pen chokings here that I could find, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commision has [this](http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/PRHTML96/96011.html) to say about vending machine fatalities: > [@](#): > > In 1995, CPSC received reports of at least two consumers who died and one who was severely injured after the soda machines they were rocking fell on them. CPSC is aware of at least 37 deaths and 113 injuries since 1978 that have resulted from consumers rocking or tilting the machines in an attempt to obtain free soda or money. ---
**Author:** ![Starguard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Starguard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starguard)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/3 "2004-03-04T11:32:07Z")
> [@Q.E.D.](#): > > There’s nothing about ball-point pen chokings here that I could find, but the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commision has [this](http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/PRHTML96/96011.html) to say about vending machine fatalities: Now **THIS** is something that I can give personal testimony to. Back in the 80’s while serving in the US Army in Germany this was a VERY big problem over there. Believe it or not, this was happening so often that out Batallion Commander devoted an entire batallion meeting to it. Why people would rather rock these huge 1 ton machines trying to tilt them thinking that they can hold them up with one arm while reaching up into the machine with the other, than simply pay the 50 cents required for a pop is beyond me. This proble was so bad that he (the BC) gave the order that all of our machines be **BOLTED DOWN TO THE FLOOR**. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/4 "2004-03-04T13:31:18Z")
I don’t know about ballpoint pens (I’m assuming you mean on the tops, not the entire pen), but the Tennessee Williams, author of “Streetcar Named Desire,” “Glass Menagerie,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” and others, choked and died on a pill bottle cap. It is suspected that he was drunk (good assumption), couldn’t get the top off and tried to pry it off with his teeth. Clunk - off it came, went down his throat and choked him to death. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/5 "2004-03-04T13:36:24Z")
> [@Starguard](#): > > This proble was so bad that he (the BC) gave the order that all of our machines be **BOLTED DOWN TO THE FLOOR**. Coming from the Navy this doesn’t sound so extreme, as everything must be ‘secured for sea’ anyway 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/6 "2004-03-04T21:53:23Z")
Thanks for the information, Q.E.D. ---
**Author:** ![EpicBroccoli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@EpicBroccoli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicBroccoli)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/7 "2021-04-23T22:05:08Z")
I know that this discussion is prettty much as ancient as can be on the net, but it turns up when searching for ballpoint-pen-related deaths… So I did some research. The earliest instance of this claim I could find was from the famed Weekly World News, from 2002: [here](https://books.google.nl/books?id=wfIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA46&lpg=PA46&dq=how+many+people+choke+on+pens+per+year&source=bl&ots=T0Ul0lJCRS&sig=ACfU3U3SQUnhYlqUfbilUAA-kMNhAbenSg&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjF5NKmnpXwAhULppUCHfe8CRgQ6AEwEnoECBcQAw#v=onepage&q=how%20many%20people%20choke%20on%20pens%20per%20year&f=false) on p. 46. Now the claim could still potentially be true, or the Weeky World News may have accidentally written something truthful here, but I strongly suspect that it is a fabrication. ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/8 "2021-04-24T01:07:09Z")
This is the first time I’ve visited this site in over a decade (!), and I was very surprised to see a notification about this thread pop up in my email. So, thank you, EpicBroccoli, for looking into this . . . although I do confess that my curiosity on the matter has dwindled in the last seventeen years. Lest anyone else arriving here from Google think that I was in the habit of reading the Weekly World News in the early 2000s, I will take this opportunity to make a firm denial. I suspect, but can’t be sure, that I came across the claim in a volume of _Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader._ Hardly a peer-reviewed journal, but perhaps more respectable than the WWN. I did find a study on the choking hazards of pen parts here (from 1998). The timing is right for it to have been subsequently reported or misreported: [https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/102/1/160.1](https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/102/1/160.1) ---
**Author:** ![Jello](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@Jello](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jello)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/9 "2021-04-24T01:09:43Z")
My memory is correct! _The Best of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader_, from 1995: > **[The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader](https://books.google.com/books?id=aQ2u0XNobyYC&q=%22choke%2Bto%2Bdeath%2Bon%2Bballpoint%2Bpens%22&dq=%22choke%2Bto%2Bdeath%2Bon%2Bballpoint%2Bpens%22&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiDv87q2JXwAhVLHzQIHQ0OBts4ChDoATACegQIARAC)** > > Find out what millions of trivia lovers already know: Uncle John is your #1 source when it comes to throne-room reading entertainment. This book celebrates the very best articles from the BRI’s first ten years--plus 150 all-new pages! As always, the... ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/10 "2021-04-24T02:09:38Z")
Welcome, @EpicBroccoli, and long time no see @Jello I’ve heard that the reason that Bic pens have the hole in the top is that they figured if someone swallowed the top, they wouldn’t asphyxiate. I imagine that’s what the OP is about. > [@plnnr](#): > > I don’t know about ballpoint pens (I’m assuming you mean on the tops, not the entire pen), but the Tennessee Williams, author of “Streetcar Named Desire,” “Glass Menagerie,” “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” and others, choked and died on a pill bottle cap. According to the Wikipedia article: > **[Tennessee Williams | Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Williams#Death)** > > On February 25, 1983, Williams was found dead at age 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysée in New York City. Chief Medical Examiner of New York City Elliot M. Gross reported that Williams had choked to death from inhaling the plastic cap of a bottle of the type used on bottles of nasal spray or eye solution. The report was later corrected on August 14, 1983, to state that Williams had been using the plastic cap found in his mouth to ingest barbiturates and had actually died from a toxic lev He wrot... This is an old thread so of course I don’t know what the accepted cause of death was at that time. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/11 "2021-04-24T04:06:03Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I’ve heard that the reason that Bic pens have the hole in the top is that they figured if someone swallowed the top, they wouldn’t asphyxiate. I imagine that’s what the OP is about. I always thought that the hole was to make it easier to cap/uncap the pen. Otherwise you have to deal with air pressure. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/12 "2021-04-24T04:25:44Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > I’ve heard that the reason that Bic pens have the hole in the top is that they figured if someone swallowed the top, they wouldn’t asphyxiate. I’ve heard this theory too, but I don’t think the hole in the cap of a pen is large enough to breathe through. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/13 "2021-04-24T07:07:38Z")
The hole doesn’t have large enough to, comfortably, breathe through, it only has to be large enough for the cap not to completely block the airway. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/14 "2021-04-24T12:02:42Z")
> - WHY IS THERE A HOLE IN SOME WRITING INSTRUMENT’S CAP?The reason that some BIC® pens have a hole in their cap is to prevent the cap from completely obstructing the airway if accidently inhaled. This is requested by the international safety standards ISO11540, except for in cases where the cap is considered too large to be a choking hazard. Source: > **[BIC Corporate | BIC](https://corporate.bic.com/en-US)** > > Welcome to the BIC Group website. Discover our latest news, innovations and information about the BIC Group and its brands. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-people-die-annually-by-choking-on-ballpoint-pens/232457/15 "2021-04-24T15:01:00Z")
Well, who trusts that site??!