Before I told my coworkers what the reason behind the small hole at the top of every Bic pen lid is, they decided to go ahead and guess willy-nilly for themselves. Their ideas were as follows:
Cass: what’s the hole for?
David: It’s to stick your tiny ass dick in, Cass.
Jason: So it is easier to take on and off I bet.
The answer, in reality, is that it’s there so if you swallow a pen cap while chewing on it you won’t die:
Some people have a habit of chewing biros as they mull over what to write next – and sometimes they might accidentally swallow it.
The hole is designed to prevent the lid blocking the airways by allowing a small vent to breathe through as it is lodged in your throat.
On its website, Bic writes: “In addition to help prevent the pen from leaking, all our BIC® caps comply with international safety standards that attempt to minimize the risk of children accidentally inhaling pen caps.
“Some of these vented caps, like that used for the BIC® Cristal®, has a little hole in the top to comply with the existing safety standards.”(via)
JCamm’s response to that not-very-thrilling yet completely logical answer was “If you’re dumb enough to swallow that, you should pay the price [death].”
It’s survival of the fittest out there in the real world, which means if you still manage to die from eating a pen cap after the company goes out of their way to death-proof it, you probably don’t deserve to be a pro-creating member of society. All hail JCamm.
[H/T Mirror]