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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

This hard plastic stuff is super dangerous, not only because you need tools to open them but also because unless your tool is very sharp you're going to use quite a bit of force and if your tool is sharp that means it can cut you just as easily as it can cut the plastic unless it is especially designed for the job. And once opened the plastic itself becomes sharp enough to cut with.

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If it's that blister packaging stuff with the folded edges, I use a manual can opener to open those. You just run it around the folded edge and it gets cut off, just like the rim of a can. Works great.

Oh that's clever I will definitely try that.

Which is why I call stuff like this “the victory of the packaging industry”. The packaging wins, the user loses.

>your tool is sharp that means it can cut you just as easily as it can cut the plastic unless it is especially designed for the job.

I don't want to be snarky but the article says to use scissors and I wouldn't think this was a problem for most people?

Cutting paper with scissors is easy. Cutting wooden boards with scissors is hard. Modern packaging plastic is more similar to boards than to paper.

Cutting that thicker plastic can really be painful (and injurious). Scissors will tend to push one side up and the other down. The newly cut plastic is razor sharp. The plastic requires a lot more force than regular paper scissors are meant for.

I have an indoor pair of tin snips for just this occasion. Cuts smoothly through the plastic, and keeps my hand further away from the sharp bits.

I also use tin snips on these packages!

that is why you have to locate the spot on the package where the cut has already been started and use the grove that is scored into the package.

My Leatherman Wingman multi tool has a “package opener” which is perfect for opening plastic clamshell packaging.

'most people' -> especially the elderly have serious problems with this (as well as with various food packaging). Scissors range from industrial shears to household scissors and especially the latter are not going to be able to cut this stuff without risk to the user, it's actually bad advice (the scissors can flip sideways suddenly due to the asymmetric loading and the relatively high force required).

because unless your tool is very sharp you're going to use quite a bit of force

Hence the old saying, "a sharp knife is safer than a dull one."

except, i would rather try to catch a falling dull knife, it's safer to catch than a sharp one.

(pointing it out mostly because I'm annoyed by the "never try to catch a falling knife" metaphor for the stock market, because a rising knife would be just as dangerous to catch which makes sense but completely nullifies the metaphor.)

On the danger of packaging, there's that terrific cartoon of a guy stranded alone on a desert island trying to open his blister packed survival kit, but then bleeding to death

Have you tried to catch either? A dull knife, assuming it can break skin, is a far worse experience. I have cuts from both, but my scars are only from dull knives.

> i would rather try to catch a falling dull knife, it's safer to catch than a sharp one.

> "never try to catch a falling knife" metaphor for the stock market

I've only ever heard this as literal advice: if you drop a knife, do not try to catch it. Move your feet/make sure the knife doesn't hit you, but do not attempt to grab it.

easy to check

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=%22never+try+to+catch+a+fal...

the plurality of results are references to investment markets.

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