The National Safety Council (NSC) hosts June
as national safety month. This year the
focus is on four topics; teenage driving,
falls prevention, overexertion (exercise,
work, etc.) and distracted driving. They
are also offering two free on-line courses.
One is titled Alive@25 (focusing on young
adults) and the other is adult CPR with AED.
You can access this information at
www.nsc.org.
One of the things I constantly use the NSC
for is accident statistics. B. L. Myers
currently updated our Policy Handbook to
include “no use of cell phones while
driving.” This sounds a bit stern to some,
but if you were not aware there are actually
250 cell phone bills in 42 states- all
dealing with driving. NJ has outlawed them
while driving and PA is close behind
(Philadelphia just did). Having a teen age
daughter with a cell phone in her hands most
of her waking hours, this issue is
constantly in my sights.
The NSC also publishes some very interesting
statistics on causes of death. The latest
data is obtained for persons born in 2005
with a life expectancy of 77.8 years.
Several of these entries are especially
interesting.
You have twice the chance of dying from a
firearms assault this year than you do
crossing the street (pedestrian). There is
virtually no chance of dying from radiation,
but 1in 74,126,765 chance of being “offed”
by fireworks. Interestingly enough, the
chance of death from
falling out of bed is the same as dying |
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in a cataclysmic storm. I imagine that
those chances are greater if you sleep
outside in a tree house during such a storm.
There is twice the chance of dying from a
poisonous spider bite as there is if your
pajamas caught fire. Yet, falling and
drowning in a bath tub and inhaling gastric
contents (stomach acids) afford the same
deadly statistics.
For workers, cave-ins (such as trenches and
excavations) are 15% more likely to kill you
than coming in contact with a hot water tap.
Although, contact with electric transmission
lines is 3 times as likely.
Overall, the chances of dying from an
unintentional accident is 1 in 2,517 this
year or 1in 32 over your lifetime. Motor
vehicle accidents are 30% less likely to
result in death. I guess it is fair to say
you can die crossing the street as easily as
you could at work or enjoying your favorite
recreational activity. As for the gentleman
below, he is putting an awful lot of faith
in those two sticks…he must not work under
the direction of a cranky Safety Director.
Not a B. L. Myers employee. |