Transcripts

David Ropiek:
But it turns out our life expectancy was 45 in 1900, and now it's nearing 80!

David Ropiek, author of the book Risk!

And infant mortality is down and quality of life is up. However, fear is also up for two reasons: technology comes up with new risks at a faster than ever pace and a much broader, more constant drumbeat of media stories about the potential risks from some of those technologies.

For example, you've probably heard that there is a concern that cell phones can cause cancer.

And yet, the radiation energy from a cell phone just can't cause cancer. It's the wrong kind of wave for breaking atoms and molecules and your DNA apart. It just can't do it. That doesn't matter-it's the emotional factors that make us afraid.

Something that really is a risk that we tend not to be afraid of is medical errors.

And this isn't just the doctor cutting off the wrong leg. This is the nurse not washing his or her hands, spreading an infection. This is a pharmacist not filling out your prescription right. This is you not telling your doctor you're on Pill A when he prescribes Pill B. Medical errors can kill as many as 100,000 Americans or so a year, just in hospitals, where they kind of keep score or keep count. Many more of them die in ways, or are hurt in ways, that we can't keep score of.

For transcripts, visit our website, somethingyoushouldknow.net. I'm Mike Carruthers and that's "Something You Should Know."