Woman killed by tiki torch oil

Mixology Warning #1 - Do not place the tiki torch oil near the rest of your liquors.

An 84-year-old Burlington County woman died and five other New Jersey residents were sickened in separate incidents after drinking small amounts of torch oil they mistook for apple juice, New Jersey poison control officials said yesterday.

One of those injured was an 8-year-old Bergen County girl whose lungs sustained permanent damage after she drank from a glass on the kitchen counter filled with what she thought was apple juice.

State health officials last night said they were working on sending out an electronic alert to local health officials about the incidents.

The Burlington County woman, who was not identified, died in a hospital Monday night from "complications of lung damage," said Steve Marcus, executive director of the New Jersey Poison Information & Education System. Marcus said the Burlington County Medical Examiner's Officer is investigating.

"Somebody poured the drink for her thinking it was apple juice," he said of the "kerosene-like" substance, which is used to light patio torches.

One person mistook the oil for bottled water and tried to make coffee, but didn't get sick, Marcus said.

. . . . .

"I can understand easily why someone would mistake it for food. If it was on a shelf or on a table, you would have to look pretty hard," he said, although he noted the bottle has a warning label, written in both English and Spanish.

Marcus said he has alerted state health officials as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the manufacturer about what he called the "look-alike" oil.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/topstories/index.ssf/2008/07/tikitorch_oil_kills_woman_and.html

What a sad way to go !

That sucks but common sense goes a long way . Dont just leave chemicals lying around and identify the contents with a marker . I dont know why the label was missing and they thought it was apple juice and whats it doing in the kitchen under the sink ? Be responsible and not so damn lazy and THINK ! Water looks a lot like gasoline but Im not gonna run the garden hose in my trucks gas tank . There, Im done now . Resume your lives .

Jeez, that is sad...I can't even think of a funny comment.

But come to think of it, what do fire dancers use when they spew fire? And "fire swallowing" by putting a torch in your mouth is not really ingesting the fluid, either...(This is a serious inquiry)

They use kerosene, but do not swallow any.

Great. Now they will ban torch fuel all over the US because an idiot left it where another dummy thought it was apple juice. One person screws it up for the rest of us...

On 2008-07-02 11:49, bigbrotiki wrote:
And "fire swallowing" by putting a torch in your mouth is not really ingesting the fluid, either...(This is a serious inquiry)

Actually, I once heard an interview with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) where he said one of the main hazards of fire swallowing was that you do ingest a small amount of the fluid, so that you can only do so many shows in a given time span or you will get ill.

I think Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid should weigh in on this question!

geez..how stupid does one have to be?? wouldn't the smell be enough to make you pause before taking a swig.....and bottled water??..unless you been drinkin rain water, torch fluid looks nothing like water!!..except when it comes out on the opposite end....LOL

chalk this up to a thinning of the herd....obviously the world was too dangerous of a place for these people to continue living in...

A place I worked in, someone (not me) gave a customer caustic soda with their tequila shot rather than salt. These things happen, the cleaners had left it on the bar where the salt usually was and bartenders don't always look at what they grab it should be intinctually there. T he customers ended up with some rather nasty burns on thier hands, luckily none went in their mouths.

On 2008-07-02 12:47, Tipsy McStagger wrote:
geez..how stupid does one have to be?? wouldn't the smell be enough to make you pause before taking a swig.....

That was my first thought. How could you possibly get it near your nose without thinking, Hey I think there's something wrong here? At least they can look forward to the Darwin Awards ceremony.

Well, consider it was a 84 year old woman who died - there is a good chance that her sense of smell, or sight, and even taste could be greatly diminished.

I came across this statement on the manufacturer's website - they recommend that if torch fuel is accidently swallowed, that it be allowed to pass through the body, and NOT to induce vomiting.

The greatest potential danger is that, should the child or individual vomit, some of the oil could aspirate into the lungs and this could quite possibly cause a petroleum pneumonia, a very serious illness.

i was poisoned at tahiti joe's with caustic beer line cleaner. the person who cleaned the lines that day was fired from the distribution company.

it was quite unpleasant.

For a smooth and steady tiki torch oil pour, I recommend the following...

Seriously, how many people drank the Grape Kool Aid?

PTD

On 2008-07-02 13:59, ikitnrev wrote:

Well, consider it was a 84 year old woman who died -

..well then she lived a good, full life to a ripe old age.....it was time for her to go...

Two words sum it up....

Jersey

Darwin

There goes my signature cocktail for Tiki Oasis. Back to the drawing board.

On 2008-07-02 16:43, Jason Wickedly wrote:
There goes my signature cocktail for Tiki Oasis. Back to the drawing board.

For a contest even though Tiki King had one years ago

The perfect way to serve
The second design is of a tiki torch mug. the mug has a lid that comes off.
on the lid the wick is hollowed out for 151 rum, making the torch actually fire up.
the bottom is hallow, with the look of bamboo.

Oh, mug design by Octane

On 2008-07-02 12:25, GatorRob wrote:

On 2008-07-02 11:49, bigbrotiki wrote:
And "fire swallowing" by putting a torch in your mouth is not really ingesting the fluid, either...(This is a serious inquiry)

Actually, I once heard an interview with Penn Jillette (of Penn and Teller fame) where he said one of the main hazards of fire swallowing was that you do ingest a small amount of the fluid, so that you can only do so many shows in a given time span or you will get ill.

I think Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid should weigh in on this question!

Ia orana, folks.

Indeed, some ingestion is inevitable with fire eating or fire blowing performances- For example: To do fire eating or tongue fire transfers (As in the picture below), a small amount of fuel must remain on the tongue to keep the flame going- some of which gets swallowed. Taking a mouthful of fuel before fire spitting (fire breathing) will definitely leave some fuel in the mouth- no matter how hard one tries to spit it all out. Even manipulation (lighting up your arm or other body part briefly) results in some absorption as fuel comes in contact with skin.

I do tend to get a bit queasy after a busy weekend of shows.

Marina

TIKI Ultra Pure Fuel is sootless, smokeless, and odorless. Maybe that's how some can be mistaken for bottled water.

An honest mistake

I thought about the smell and why in the kitchen BUT what about the
idea that it was in a drinking glass. Why would fuel be in a drinking
glass when you would just pour from bottle to torch. Also, the taste.
There is no way it could taste like water or juice and would taste bad.
One sip and I would spit it out. There is no way that I would drink
much. PLus why would you believe it to be apple juice? I would only drink
from a glass that I poured. "Oh here is a glass sitting here, I think I
will drink from it". The woman would have to not be all there.
First to pour it into a glass and second to forget it was poured from a
torch oil bottle. Or, it was murder.

There are so many bells that would go off before this would happen. 84 years
old, I have Grandparents that old (older) and both my Grandfathers still ride
motorcylces everyday so age wouldn't exactly have anything to do with it.

Wait, maybe she drinks straight from the bottle most of the time. Ok, it
could happen.