Use of small holes in ballpoint caps

The small hole at the end of the ballpoint pen is designed to be safe for the user, but its true effect is still controversial.

The ballpoint cap usually has a small hole to prevent suffocation.(Photo: News.com.au).

In 1991, the French ball pen manufacturing company introduced the design of a small round hole at the end of the ballpoint pen to reduce the possibility of suffocation for users. According to News.com.au, many people have a habit of chewing the ballpoint cap when thinking. They may accidentally swallow the pen cap. Meanwhile, the small hole in the pen cap allows an amount of air to pass through, helping them to breathe.

However, in 2007, Ben Stirland, a 13-year-old boy from Durham in northeastern England, died from swallowing the pen cap when falling from a chair. According to Nathalie Hodgson, his mother, the safety hole on the ballpoint pen is not as useful as popular notions.

"The body secretions will quickly seal that hole. Because of the pen cap shape, secretions easily stagnate in the throat and cannot be removed in time, " Hodgson warned.