How risky is going about your daily life, and when should the public be alerted to a danger?
In the case of potentially explosive train ticket machines, it took the German police about two months before they alerted the public. Nothing happened.
In the case of a customer sticking needles into fresh meat packages in supermarkets in the north of the country, it took many more months before the authorities went public (article in German).
With a grand total of about 20 incidents since late 2013, and one person injured, when should consumers be alerted?
Does it depend on the type of needle?
If the lady had used nice big knitting needles, certainly. Maybe one of the affected stores would have run a buy a pound of chicken, get a free knitting needle special.
The needles were small, helas, so did the police statisticians do some math? Several thousand supermarkets in the region, with two incidents per month for what - a couple of million packages of meat sold every month?
Equals five correct numbers in the lottery, or so.
Except, you don't even know you are playing.
Germany does not have cable news channels willing to dispatch their star reporters to all grocery stores within a hundred miles to fondle meat packages for hours on end, so the argument of a mass panic does not apply. German TV instead broadcasts hours and hours of guys driving fast in circles or days of people gliding down icy slopes.
Letting politicians or the tabloid BILD handle consumer safety alerts won't work either, because that would assure panic.
So, as usual, we have no solution to offer, and it is time to head to the store anyway.
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