Subtitled: "The next stage of the safety hysteria cycle"

Zitat

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The Tide Pod Challenge has reached the next stage of the safety hysteria cycle, with lawmakers proposing legislation to fight an alleged menace.

Not a single child died from consuming a liquid detergent package last year, and the number of child exposure incidents has been falling steadily since 2015. Yet a pair of New York legislators introduced a bill yesterday to keep the colorful laundry aids from being sold in the state.

The bill—sponsored by Sen. Brad Hoylman (D/WF–Manhattan) and Assemblymember Aravella Simotas (D/WF–Queens)—would require all detergent packages sold in New York to be of a uniform color that is "unattractive to children." The product would also have to come wrapped in child bite–resistant packaging. Also, there would need to be a warning label informing would-be Tide Pod champions that the product is dangerous to eat.

"As the parent of two young kids, I'm very concerned about the safety of liquid detergent packets," Hoylman said in a press release. "It's way past time to fix these products or remove them altogether from store shelves."

Consumer safety activists also released statements of support for the bill. "By clearly marking individual packages with a warning message, I hope teenagers will rethink their self-harming behavior," said Shino Tanikawa, a member of Community Education Council District and clearly a master of how teens think.

The fear expressed by proponents of a Tide Pod ban is that the product looks and smells dangerously like candy, thus leading children to consume them.

Yet the actual number of fatal poisonings resulting from children consuming these items is quite small. From 2012 to 2017, only two children died from consuming liquid detergent packs. That's compared to the 16 kids under the age of 6 who died from exposure to batteries between 2012 and 2016, according to the National Poison Control Center. Batteries, you may have noted, do not resemble candy.

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http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/07/new-yo...eil-legislation

And thus the genetic slop pool keeps producing tadpoles...