Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Is the 1987 Consumer Protection Act Doing its Job to Counter Corporate Interests and Protect the Public

Is the 1987 Consumer Protection Act Doing its Job to Counter Corporate Interests and Protect the... A recent case of a criminal prosecution using the 1987 ConsumerProtection Act Part 2 was applied to the serious eye injury of ateenager resulting from the explosive separation of a cap from a bottleof CocaCola. The scientific evidence used by the Defence, who werefound not guilty, is considered herein to be flawed and its valuechallenged. The energy and velocity of missiling caps are calculated fora range of pressure and headspace volumes. The energy of a missiling capwas shown to increase approximately linearly with pressure andorheadspace volume. Missiling velocities of up to 12 ms are achievable ona 70 per cent vacuity and it is shown that, for a typical productpressure of 34 psig 2.31 bar, a headspace of 0.82 litres is capable ofprojecting a cap at sonic velocity. This raises disturbing questions,inter alia, about the wisdom of continuing to market largethreelitre packs of carbonated drinks. Headspace of carbonated drinksshould be kept as low as the filling plant will allow this reduces theballistic energy when premature separation of the cap occurs. Applying apermanent hinge, linking the cap to the security ring, would preventinjuries from explosive separation of a cap from the neck of a bottle.Introducing a system of assessors into the legal procedures in a complexhearing is proposed, in view of the higher burden of proof required incriminal actions such as the one described. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png British Food Journal Emerald Publishing

Is the 1987 Consumer Protection Act Doing its Job to Counter Corporate Interests and Protect the Public

British Food Journal , Volume 94 (6): 7 – Jun 1, 1992

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/is-the-1987-consumer-protection-act-doing-its-job-to-counter-corporate-eMd0tjGuUC
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0007-070X
DOI
10.1108/00070709210015125
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

A recent case of a criminal prosecution using the 1987 ConsumerProtection Act Part 2 was applied to the serious eye injury of ateenager resulting from the explosive separation of a cap from a bottleof CocaCola. The scientific evidence used by the Defence, who werefound not guilty, is considered herein to be flawed and its valuechallenged. The energy and velocity of missiling caps are calculated fora range of pressure and headspace volumes. The energy of a missiling capwas shown to increase approximately linearly with pressure andorheadspace volume. Missiling velocities of up to 12 ms are achievable ona 70 per cent vacuity and it is shown that, for a typical productpressure of 34 psig 2.31 bar, a headspace of 0.82 litres is capable ofprojecting a cap at sonic velocity. This raises disturbing questions,inter alia, about the wisdom of continuing to market largethreelitre packs of carbonated drinks. Headspace of carbonated drinksshould be kept as low as the filling plant will allow this reduces theballistic energy when premature separation of the cap occurs. Applying apermanent hinge, linking the cap to the security ring, would preventinjuries from explosive separation of a cap from the neck of a bottle.Introducing a system of assessors into the legal procedures in a complexhearing is proposed, in view of the higher burden of proof required incriminal actions such as the one described.

Journal

British Food JournalEmerald Publishing

Published: Jun 1, 1992

There are no references for this article.