Mike
Carruthers:
What's really dangerous? Not the things we typically think.
Laura Lee:
If you look at how many people are injured by beds, ninety six
thousand people went to the emergency room from an accident
that occurred while they were sleeping or lying down. That's
a lot less than people who were admitted for knife wounds, for
example.
Laura Lee, author
of the book The
100 Most Dangerous Things in Everyday Life…
Gravity is probably
the most dangerous thing because most of the accidents we have
involve falling down in one way or another. I discovered that
if you take any category of accidents and any category of household
items that can hurt you, a lot of the accidents involve tripping
over them or falling and whacking your head on them and that
kind of thing.
You are more
likely to be killed by a teddy bear than a grizzly bear.
Between 1906
and 1995, eighty-two Americans had accidents involving bears
- grizzly bears. Meanwhile, injuries by toys and stuffed toys
were about one hundred forty thousand injuries - so about twenty-two
deaths each year from teddy bears; whereas attacks by real bears
are pretty rare.
And germs aren't
always where you think they are.
There are more
germs on your desk than on the surface of your toilet; and more
germs on your keyboard and your telephone because that's where
people are putting their hands and your mouth is real close
to the phone and you're just - that's where you're spreading
your germs.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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