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08.05.13

Plastic Bags Kill….

While plastic bags are typically required to have a suffocation warning, unfortunately deaths from suffocating on plastic bags do happen, most often to kids.  Just last week a story came out of Hastings, Michigan where a three-year-old boy died after playing with a plastic bag.  These are horrible accidents that are most easily prevented by taking plastic bags out of the equation.

From www.woodtv.com in Michigan, “A 3-year-old Hastings boy is dead after being suffocated by a plastic bag…3-year-old J.N. was playing with his 5-year-old brother when J. put a plastic bag over his head. J. couldn't remove the bag. His brother alerted their father who started performing CPR on J.  N. was taken to Pennock Hospital, later flown to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. He died at the hospital Tuesday… The boy's death is accidental and no foul play is suspected.”

At a City of Los Angeles city council meeting in June, Councilmember Paul Koretz testified about this very subject.  Councilmember Koretz stated that the “US Consumer Product Safety Commission receives an average of about 25 reports a year describing the deaths of children who suffocated due to these plastic bags…..and none that are remotely credible from reusable bags.”  Comments begin at 1m32s…   

“Unfortunately dolphins and turtles and birds and other marine life who choke to death on plastic bags can't read these labels.”