Tiki-Torch Oil Sickens And Kills

OMG, what on earth was a drinking glass doing filled with THAT liquid???

I can't believe it doesn't reek to high heaven!

I'm going to hold off on some of the obvious observations I could make here, and just say this is very, very sad.

The fact that six people have made this mistake so far, you have to believe this stuff looks helluva lot like juice. You'd think the oil would be a little viscous, no?

Gas must be stored in red cans.
Kerosene in blue.
Why aren't there regulations about the storage of this flammable liquid?

Or better yet, why is lamp oil sold in plastic jugs that look almost exactly like apple juice containers?

It is very sad...but I can only say, what idiot would put this stuff in a glass and leave it on a kitchen counter? I can understand a young kid not realizing. I can even understand the grandmother if she perhaps did not have good eyesight or sense of smell. But there are still others that have done this - the container, to me, does not look like apple juice. It says TORCH FUEL on it. It smells bad. I have the stuff - no way would I drink it if I got a glass of it up to my face and smelled it. It's very strange; people must not be very observant. I guess they need to put a big red blaze on it "NOT APPLE JUICE! DON'T DRINK THIS!"

Very sad, but it seems like these accidents were entirely preventable.

The stuff does smell (it certainly doesn't smell like apple juice) and, being oil, doesn't look the same as juice as it is being poured.

Horrible accidents like this are made all the worse when they're preventable by applying a little common sense.

I feel very bad for the little girl, however for the rest of them, Darwinism at its finest.

It is really bizarre that there have been so many of these incidents.

I never ceased to be impressed by the speed and fury with which posters here pass judgment and decree solutions to all manner of events and issues, regardless of the paucity of information available to them. Indeed, it seems the less details available, the faster and more furious the arrogant bloviating.

Yes, if common sense were only more common, we would have little to banter about here on Baristanet. Yet we do not know the specific circumstances by which each of these individuals accidentally consumed the tiki torch fuel. Perhaps some of them were not English speakers (not unlikely given that some of the victims were from Elizabeth and Paterson), and could not comprehend the meaning of "Torch Fuel". For a non-consumable liquid, the package presents the temptingly misleading appearance of something far more harmless, especially if carelessly placed near containers of consumable liquids, such as on a picnic table. I can envision someone pouring this liquid as a beverage and innocently consuming it or serving it to someone else under such circumstances.

I don't know if these jugs have child-resistant caps such as those on anti-freeze jugs, but such a feature should probably be incorporated now. Perhaps that would have served as a warning to some that the liquid inside was not a beverage. That there have been several recurrences of this incidents demands far more attention to the matter than snarkily dismissing these tragedies as "Darwinism at its finest".

You're right Pork Roll!

We should have a town wide reverse 911 immediately to inform community members that "if it's yellow, don't assume its apple juice". This would probably aid us in the Essex county urine drinking epidemic that we're currently experiencing as well.

Bottoms up!

This past weekend, I wasn't paying attention, and I accidentally brushed my teeth with my daughter's sun block. I didn't get sick, but it was a very unpleasant experience. Then again, my teeth have never been brighter!

I once put Preparation H on my toothbrush.

Once, I mistakenly drank water thinking it was vodka.

I rinsed my mouth out with Sea Breeze astringent once thinking it was my mouthwash. **Refreshing beyond belief** - My mouth burned for hours!

I'm sorry, I think the smell of that stuff verges on overpowering. One smear of it on my hand just from touching the bottle (another sure sign it's not juice) and the stink will drive me nuts until I get some soap and hot water. Possibly after. No way that's going to get close to my lips!

Like some said, I can understand elderly folks and little children, but any adult with their faculties who'd drink that stuff by accident? That seems impossible.

according to today's Star Ledger, which also shows a side-by-side photo (apple juice? tiki oil? apple juice? tiki...) NJ is the only state to have had residents make this mistake. hellllo, Late Night.

I accidently tried to clean my floors with the fuel because I thought it was Murphy's oil soap. I lit a cigarette and my house burned down. Oh well.

I see a chapter on Tiki Oil consumption in the next issue of the Darwin Awards book. Wedged somewhere between "people who died because they shook the vending machine and it fell on them" and "people who clean out the lawnmower blades while its turning"