There’s more to the story about the person who died from drinking lamp oil. One 84-year-old NJ lady died after mistaking tiki torch oil for apple juice. 4 other NJ residents were hospitalized after doing the same. One of them was an 8-year old girl, now suffering permanent lung damage. Oddly, the victims were located in separate parts of the state. NJ Poison Information and Education System executive director Steve Marcus told Gothamist, “During my 40 years in medicine, you get an occasional kid who ingests kerosene, but I have never seen this kind of cluster.” (The Happening Part 2? Neurotoxins disable the part of people’s brains that makes them distinguish between household cleaners and refreshing beverages?) All of them drank the same product, oil in a clear plastic bottle labeled “Tiki Torch Fuel,” sold by Lamplight Farms, Inc. Amber in color, it’s visually indistinguishable from apple juice. Don’t forget to always keep chemicals under the sink and away from food, and always in original bottles. That some of these almost seem designed to look like tasty energy drinks doesn’t help matters.
PREVIOUSLY: Don’t Drink Lamp Oil Or You’ll Die
More From Consumerist
-
Ambitious Thief Walks Out Of Costco With 24 Bottles Of Motor Oil Wrapped Around His Body
-
Walmart Still Ignoring Customer Whose Engine Was Ruined In Botched Oil Change
-
These Money-Saving Tactics Really Just Drain Your Wallet
-
A 15-Ounce Pound Cake Isn’t A Case Of Grocery Shrink Ray
-
Winter Is Coming, And This Year It’ll Be Cold Enough To Increase Your Home Heating Bills
@balthisar: It’s a minority vs majority thing. Why change many when you can change a few?
They don’t mention anything like this in the article, but New Jersey has lots of immigrants from lots of different places – maybe some or all were folks relying on the design for clues rather than the words on the label? Heck, even the word “fuel” is used to market “tasty energy drinks” pretty regularly.
It’s odd, usually these oils have a strong odor that distinguishes them from juice. Also most have security caps. Perhaps placing them in opaque packaging will make it more obvious.
All this hoopla about ‘people dying’ and nothing about how friggin delicious it is!
Does no one take the time to actually READ what they are shoving into their faces?
No, the store is not responsible, no, the manufacturer is not responsible. READ!
@FromThisSoil: Does someone not read the comments that might illuminate commentor on the possibilities that recipient may not have been able to read said bottle?
@FromThisSoil: Agreed.
But maybe it would still help if the manufacturer added some kind of coloring to the fuel, so instead of a clear, pale yellowish liquid, you can see some other color instead that’s not as easily mistaken for a soft drink?
They probably shouldn’t pack non-edible substances in containers that are usually used for edible products. It’s like packing engine oil in a milk carton.
BrockBrockman: It’s like packing engine oil in a milk carton.
Sweet, where can I buy some?
/no more funnels
Ok, I was just walking through a store today and though, wonder how much that apple juice is… oh, that’s tiki torch fuel.
Granted it would have to take a whole lot of not paying attention to actually have bought it, got it home, unbagged it, open and pour a glass, hold under nose and drink it.
@azntg: The problem with adding colour to differentiate it from fruit drinks is what colours are fruit drinks not?
The thing about lamp oil (which comes in all colors, as well as clear) is that, as other commenters speculated, it has a very different viscosity and mouthfeel than juice or other water-based solutions. I can’t say I’ve ever actually ingested it, but I have used it for firebreathing, which means it’s been in my mouth. Not in a thousand years would I confuse it with something that should be swallowed. The taste is something like Mr. Clean flavored canola oil.
I say we just need Mr. Yuck (as suggested above) and some sort of literacy campaign in New Jersey.
@lordargent: I keep a bottle of vinegar next to my bleach and other cleaning products under the sink. Vinegar is great for cleaning glass and floors.
Have you seen Fabuloso?
[www.colgate.com]
I could see this happening with an elderly person. I have worked dementia wards for years, and even someone that only has a slight touch of dementia might find it hard to distinguish what they are eating, if they expect it to be something else. I had an elderly man, who was mostly (mostly!) with it, that ate crayons because he thought it was candy. Lucky for all around that crayons are pretty safe, as far as eating non food items are concerned.
This stuff has been on the market for ages. NOW people are starting to consume it?
@BrockBrockman: Ironic that you mention milk cartons, because my first thought on the new milk cartons was that they look like bleach containers.
[consumerist.com]
The article, however, says both the 8-year-old and the 84-year-old drank out of cups that they themselves didn’t pour, meaning that someone else made the mistake.
Personally, I think it would be much easier to just require that cleaning products have green lids a la “Mr. Yuck”, and food products cannot use green lids.
:::::::::::
As a person drinks liquids from a cup ones nose usually takes an automatic whiff.
They should have been able to smell that lamp oil odor as they brought the cup to there mouth.
Surely this would have been in the household/garden chemicals section of a store. How often have you picked up juice from that aisle?? Other commenters have said how it doesn’t look like a fuel bottle, as it is clear. The picture of a burning torch and the words “Torch Fuel” seemed a bit of a give-away to me.
Reading the linked article, I fail to see how someone mistook this for water?? Water is clear. This oil is yellow.
I have a bottle of this exact brand and it has a strong smell of oil and citronella. And now with lemongrass oil!
They didn’t notice the smell?
No hope for the stupid.
That does it. I’ll never drink juice again unless I can hold a match to it first.
It’s not so difficult to see how somebody could drink this stuff. Many seniors have poor smell and taste ability. Some are demented, and no longer understand the notion of safe/not safe to consume. Children have better sensory ability, but might drink something that looks like something they are already familiar with. It’s quite a stretch to call demented seniors and trusting children “stupid.”
@Mom2Talavera: Actually, the reflex is to hold your breath, lest the drink go down the wrong pipe.
Was it poured in a glass like the ones pictured? Perhaps the orginating bottle was only marked on one side? I’m thinking the it should be required that all poisons be marked on everyside, like a label that goes all the way around. And a lid that is unmistakably hard to undo so the user knows it must be a hazardous liquid. I have noticed in the past that these containers provide little indication of what lays inside other than the intial singular label.
@godlyfrog: But you usually get in one good inhale before you drink. At which point you should be smelling what you’re about to drink.
I always squirt saline in my eyes before I take my contacts out, makes it easier to remove them. While the bottle is always in the same place on the bathroom sink, and while nothing else is ever placed in that spot, and while the bottle always feel the same size, I always check to make sure it’s saline before I put it in my eyes.
All it takes is once for that to be a bottle of something caustic.
If the incident happened when the tiki oil was out and being used, then it makes more sense how it could happen.
If I’m hanging out on someone’s deck at a cookout, I tend to assume that the large bottles of liquid that I see are beverages of some sort. At a gathering like that, I might not pay close attention to the label. The 84-year old woman might also have been unwilling (or too polite) to spit out a mouthful of something nasty when she realized it wasn’t what she thought.
I’d blame the person who left the tiki oil out on the table at the cookout. Put the poisons away when you’re done with them!
@godlyfrog:
“The article, however, says both the 8-year-old and the 84-year-old drank out of cups that they themselves didn’t pour, meaning that someone else made the mistake .”
Uh, sure…”mistake”. Maybe that explains it all.
Personally, I can’t understand how you’d make this mistake yourself: oil has an entirely different consistency than juice (oil vs. water…take a big swig of olive oil and you’ll understand); kerosene, even if it is laced with citronella, does not smell like juice ; there’s a friggin flame and the word “fuel” on the label — when was the last time you saw Fiery Apple Juice Fuel marketed; and who the hell keeps open fuel and juice right next to each other in the refrigerator?
I can give the 84 and 8 year old a pass as someone apparently served it to them, but the others?
*sip* This apple juice tastes horrible. Oh well. *gulp*
Why did someone put lamp oil in a cup?
i’ve got more or less the same stuff right now, and i’m amazed that someone would be able to drink more than maybe a sip of it (though maybe a sip is all it could take).
It smells like zippo fluid. The smell is strong. Hell it makes me near sick to fill up 3 torches (aside from the tiny necks the torches have on them making it impossible to fill them without a funnel without spilling anything). I suppose if one was drunk they could mistake them in color, but still, the smell is WICKED BAD.
Anyhoo, Ben, the advice to store this sort of thing under the sink isn’t that great IMO. You wouldn’t store a gas can under the sink, you certainly shouldn’t have a gallon can of lighter fuel under there either. Stuff like this should be kept at the very least in the garage away from the kids, but even better would be in the shed, OUTSIDE, locked up.
okay, but last time I bought tiki torch fuel, it had a special cap on it, like pill bottles. The last time I bought apple juice they did not.
when i was in nursery school, there was an incident where one of the cleaning staff poured some cleaning solution into one of those opaque plastic juice jugs (you know, with the handle and pourer tip – dumb mistake, especially in A NURSERY SCHOOL) and left it on the table. at snack time, a (slightly careless) yet unsuspecting young helper poured several glasses of it to the kids, who started drinking it. apparently it was similar in color to juice. pretty quickly, the mistake was realized when kids started spitting it out and vomiting and crying, but still it could have been even worse. i was lucky to not get any juice yet, but about 5-6 kids had had some. this was over 20 years ago, and i feel like these kinds of things will continue to happen no matter what regulations there are due to our own human stupidity.
@alejo699: anti-freeze tastes sweet just due to the nature of the ingredient, ethylene glycol, but the color is there for a reason. to the naked eye it looks neon green (an unfortunate coincidence now with gatorade’s many fancy colors – maybe they shouldn’t make drinks the color of anti-freeze….), but it has that dye there so that if someone is suspected to have ingested anti-freeze, it will fluoresce on imaging so doctors can know for sure and then appropriately treat.
ok so not just the taste and smell which are obvious indicators that it isn’t juice. but what about where it’s stored? or where in the store it was purchased? personally i find apple juice is generally sold refrigerated and frozen and then stored in the fridge. or in a big giant thing that has apples on it, like the mott’s brand style. tiki torch fuel would be by things like charcoal lighter fluid and not put in the fridge.
unless people are now putting their lighter fluid in the fridge. is this a new trend? like dishsoap/lemon juice confusion. it’s dishsoap, it looks like dishsoap, as bitter as lemons are, they taste like lemon and not soap.
and if you didn’t spit it out as soon as it hit your tongue wtf? dribble it back into the glass.
This is NOT, i repeat NOT the fault of the Tiki Torch manufacturer. They clearly labeled their product.
I’m with @katylostherart: and @maevealleine: I still can’t see how this happened unless these items were both kept in the fridge or both kept in the pantry (because you can buy juice in plastic containers that can be stored unopened for quite some time) right next to each other. I can understand both the victims of 8 and 84 mistaking this because of poor eyesight or lack of judgement/comprehension, but where are these being stored to even get that confusion going in the first place?
I can’t see how the company is at fault at all in this case. Even all over their website they have safety guidelines and “harmful or fatal if swallowed” on everything. Is there a piece of the puzzle we’re all missing?