BehindTheMedspeak: How the design of a BIC pen can save your life

This is the most interesting thing I've learned this year, just in yesterday via the Washington Post.

Linda Hales, in her review of Paola Antonelli's new book, "Humble Masterpieces," in yesterday's Style section, mentioned it toward the very end of her piece.

After noting that the classic BIC Cristal pen (above) was among Antonelli's chosen objects Hales wrote, "The book solves the mystery of the holes in the clear plastic sleeve and cap. The latter is intended to make it easier to breathe if the cap gets caught in the throat."

Who knew?

Now, I always figured that the hole in the barrel had something to do with helping the ink flow, sort of like how a second opening in a can makes the contents pour more easily.

Wrote Hales, "The other [barrel hole] prevents a vacuum that would keep ink from flowing."

So–called ballpoint pen tracheostomies are occasionally referred to but I've yet to meet someone who's done (or been the object of) one.

Here's a link to an interesting article about the use of a pocketknife and drinking straw for that purpose.

I can see how you could, if desperate, succeed in creating a hole in the trachea, through the cricothyroid membrane (below),

large enough to support life using the point of a pen as a dilator to ram the rest through.

It wouldn't be pretty, though.

Speaking of which, the LifeStat emergency airway (below)

I ordered and received last week, and now keep in my car's glove box, looks like it will do the trick very well: it's beautifully made.

We won't know, though, will we, until it gets its big moment?

But I digress.

What I want to know is who decided to put the emergency ventilation hole in the BIC pen's cap, and when it appeared.

Any information on this subject will be most gratefully welcomed and acknowledged (if you like) here with a shout–out.

Paola Antonelli, in case you were wondering, is the design curator of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

I love her motto, "Minimize the embarrassment" — even thought it's the opposite of mine.