You might think that pizza will always be there for you as a warm, cheesy, loveable friend, but according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC), it can be quite dangerous if handled incorrectly.
In honor of National Cheese Pizza Day on September 5, the USPSC tweeted a photo that listed out “Pizza Tales of Betrayal” including, but not limited to, pizza-induced cuts, burns and falls while eating, delivering or reaching for pizza.
In total, there were roughly 2,300 pizza-related injuries in 2017.
The USCPSC is responsible for collecting data related to injuries from various household products and compiles that data into an electronic surveillance system (think: Ben Stiller’s character in “Along Came Polly”). They collect information from hospitals around the United States to compile these statistics, all in the name of protecting the welfare of American citizens.
Joe Galbo, who does social media for the USCPSC, says, “'I used to get surprised by the number of injuries associated with things like pizza or books. But I think it's a pretty low number considering how many people eat pizza”, which is about three billion per year.
According to the rest of the surveillance data, other unexpected items cause thousands or even hundreds of thousands of injuries every year like clothing (417,306), batteries (18,001), soap (61,416) and beds/pillows (898,485).
Luckily, the USCPSC regularly puts out quality tweets (see the one below about playground safety) to remind consumers to always stay safe when partaking in everyday activities.
While pizza itself probably won’t become safer, hopefully the USCPSC’s work will cause less pizza injuries this year.