It’s hard to believe that our soulmate would do anything that could send us to the hospital. But sadly, many people make trips to the emergency room with pizza-related injuries. How? Why? Who? We realize this is concerning news, so we’ll do our best our tread lightly on this topic.
According to a September 5th tweet posted by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), 2,300 emergency room visits “were associated with pizza” in 2017 alone.
The post goes on to say that these tragic injuries included, “but were not limited to,” cuts, burns, falling while carrying pizza, falling in pizza restaurants, and falling out of bed while reaching for pizza. It… it just can’t be true!
Unfortunately, these devastating stats are all rooted in fact. Annually, the CPSC collects injury information from 96 U.S. and U.S. territory hospitals. It then compiles the data in its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) as a way of keeping tabs on consumer product-related injuries, Vice’s Munchies outlet reports. It’s all pretty official and fairly indisputable.
“Pizza is a good example [of NEISS info],” the CPSC’s social media specialist, Joe Galbo, told Munchies. “The FDA obviously regulates food, but we can find injuries associated with pizza by looking for it in the injury descriptions we receive from hospitals.”
#NationalCheesePizzaDay is not a game... pic.twitter.com/CmvTIGTpRX
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) September 5, 2018
“Based on these reports,” Galbo continued, “our NEISS team uses an equation to create a national estimate of injuries.” And that’s how the CPSC arrived at 2,300 pizza-related ER trips.
But, there’s good news — kind of. Galbo explained that compared to other product injury rates the CPSC has calculated, pizza is one of the lesser threats. Backpacks and books are far more dangerous than our beloved cheesy pies.
#ReadABookDay pic.twitter.com/048FJWBSv9
— US Consumer Product Safety Commission (@USCPSC) September 6, 2018
Whether it’s bringing awareness to infant drowning, using a generator indoors, or pizza safety, the CPSC wants to remind the general public to be aware of their surroundings as they work to make smart choices.
We agree. And in our opinion, there are no bad pizzas, just bad pizza owners.
