If you have a habit of chewing on the top of your pen lid, this might give you second thoughts. The ball point pen hasn’t always had the hole in its lid design, and now we know the reason for the cut-out introduction. No it’s not air pressure, preventing a leak or an accidental flaw… According to Rachfeed, the hole was introduced as an anti-choking device, which means for those who rest the lid against their lips daily, you’re less likely to choke if you swallow the plastic topper. The hole was initially introduced to help minimise the risk of a child choking, allowing a passageway of air if a lid is swallowed by accident. Explaining the move, BIC addressed the design on its site writing: ‘In addition to help prevent the pen from leaking, all our BIC caps comply with international safety standards that attempt to minimize the risk of children accidentally inhaling pen caps.  Some of these vented caps, like that used for the BIC Cristal, has a little hole in the top to comply with the existing safety standards. ‘ So if you’re constantly chewing on the lid, you’re quite literally narrowing your own chance in a life-or-death choking situation.