noun. Anger and rage, especially among people over the age of 50, caused by frustration from plastic product packaging that is difficult or even impossible to open.
One of the most dangerous things you can do today is try to open a blister pack, those nasty little plastic clamshell packages that you can’t get open without destroying the contents and ripping the skin off of four or five fingers. Frustration by consumers has given rise to the term “wrap rage” because most injuries are caused by furious people improperly using various devices and tools to open the packages.
As reported by hospitals, the most common tools used include: pliers, kitchen shears, bolt-cutters, military issue can openers, hacksaws, files, ice picks, teeth, and fingernails. They now sell package openers with lethal, razor-sharp blades taken from leftover military surplus weapons, but most of them don’t work. Even if you do manage to use one and have any fingers left, it’s highly likely that you shredded the contents of the package.
Consumer Reports has an annual contest for the worst packaging called the Oyster Awards. Top honors usually go to blister packs. A recent winner was a toothbrush that even their testers couldn’t get out of the package, followed closely in second place by a Bratz doll that was bound and gagged to the package with plastic fasteners, twisty ties and tape in a way that would impress ancient Egyptian embalmers. Manufacturers insist the packaging is to prevent product tampering and possible lawsuits, yet face possible lawsuits anyway because of package-related consumer injuries. Paper bag manufacturers must be quite amused by all of this, though paper cuts are no laughing matter either.
A study in England reports that over 60,000 people a year are treated at hospital for injuries from opening food packages. It didn’t specify but we assume that is from plastic packages and not paper bags. A similar study in the U.S. claims 6,500 casualties a year. We’re not entirely sure why there is a tenfold difference between the two nations. Either Brits are really wimpy or Americans don’t have adequate health care coverage. We won’t speculate on any of that but maybe we should all look at what’s going on in Canada because they don’t report any packaging related injuries at all.
Ever since Snow White ate the old witch’s poison apple there has been concern about food poisoning, and blister packs must help because many of them are impossible to open at all. Clamshell packaging also cuts down on theft and pilfering in stores. Not only are the packages impossible to open and take the contents from in-store, but even thieves are savvy enough to know they won’t get it open outside the store either. If the railroads had blister packs for money shipments in the 1800’s there would have been a lot fewer train robberies.
We also hope that relief agencies never decide to use blister packs for food shipments to the third world, or that NASA never uses them to send food to the astronauts in the space station. It’s one thing to package a doll that way and have it come out looking like it had a bad night on the town, it’s quite another to do that to fruit, or a cake or products like toilet paper, tissues or condoms. On the other hand, perhaps the funeral industry could find a good use for it since packages are airtight and won’t deteriorate.
On the subject of deterioration, ecology groups have criticized blister packs because they don’t deteriorate at garbage dumps. Apparently they will still provide testament to our current culture ten thousand years in the future, assuming aliens have an interest in picking through our trash. Industry spokespeople respond by pointing out that clamshell style plastic containers are not supposed to deteriorate. If they did, they wouldn’t be much good. Unfortunately food that can’t be eaten isn’t much good either.
We decided to try opening a few blister packs on our own as a test for this article. We brought in several volunteers: a small child, an elderly lady, an average sized man, and Rex, the neighbor’s dog. We started with a hard plastic blister pack containing an electric razor. The child became frustrated in seconds and threw the package on the floor. The elderly lady tried and tried but her arthritis won out and she broke down in tears from the pain. The man used a variety of tools and finally got the package open, but not before upsetting everyone with his language and nearly severing a finger with a chain saw. The dog wandered off with the package and hasn’t been seen since. All our volunteers refused to try opening a second package.
We received letters from companies that make waxed paper, tin foil and resealable plastic lunch bags offering to sponsor tests of their products against blister packs. As lucrative as those offers were, we politely declined since we’ve decided not to conduct further tests of blister packs. After just one round we admit defeat. We have still not been able to open the packages of paper and pencils needed to write down test results. And our neighbor is pretty angry about Rex.
Note: 99% of respondents in a survey by “Yours,” a magazine for people over 50, said they thought packaging has become more difficult in the past 10 years. 95% believe there is too much product packaging these days, 71% said they had been injured by trying to open packages, and 60% claim they bought other products that were easier to open. A separate survey by the Cox Business School showed that 80% of all households use the words “frustrated,” “angry” or “rage” to describe their experiences opening plastic packaging. Industry statistics show that about 3% of all petroleum is used for petrochemicals – plastics, including packaging – while 80% goes for transportation fuels and 17% is used for asphalt and lubricants.
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