1. Stairs
Many people are afraid to ride the elevator. It’s scary: the electricity will be turned off, and you will find yourself suspended over the abyss on cables in a metal box. Therefore, some (including the author of these lines) prefer not to use these lifting mechanisms.
Escalators cause people much less fear than elevators. In the latter you are locked, but in the self-moving staircase you remain in an open space, and a breakdown of the mechanism will not trap you.
However, according to statistics, elevators are a safer way to move between floors. According to research, in the United States, there are approximately 10,000 injuries per 35,000 escalators. And for 900,000 elevators – Total 7,000 cases.
The reason is simple: in an elevator a person is isolated from mechanisms and machines, but not on an escalator.
Most often, people are injured on a moving belt when parts of their clothing, shoelaces or hair get caught in the comb or shafts that move the metal step surface. This leads to fractures, strangulation and even death. In an elevator, human carelessness does not play a big role: you cannot damage the pulleys and blocks that move the cabin.
However, the most injuries, according to the data, published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, people get on regular steps. On average, injuries occur on stairs… about 1,076,558 people per year, and that’s just in the USA. Where are the elevators and escalators put together?
2. Champagne
Alcohol causes serious harm to health. And not only when ingested. By words Peter Kaiser, an ophthalmologist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, one of the common reasons people go to doctors on New Year’s Eve is various eye injuries associated… with carelessness when opening champagne.
A plug flying into the face can cause fractures of the orbital or orbital bone, hemorrhage in the eye, retinal detachment and rupture of the iris and eye wall.
You might say: what kind of idiot do you have to be to uncork sparkling wine with the neck pointed at your face?
Well, such unlucky individuals also occur, and they receive the most severe injuries. However, more often to eye and facial surgeons fall those who held the bottle, raising it up. It’s all about the ricochet: the ejected cork bounced off the ceiling and flew into the poor fellows’ faces.
There is also a story circulating on the Internet that bottles of champagne kill more people per year than poisonous spiders. There is, however, no evidence of this. Physicist Friedrich Balck from the Clausetal Technical University measured the speed of the plug’s departure, and it turned out to be insufficient to break through bones of the human skull and reach the brain. But this part may well cause serious injury.
So open champagne carefully, without shaking it. And pre-cool the drink – this will create fewer bubbles.
3. Livestock
Australia has a reputation as a very inhospitable country, where all living creatures are trying to kill you one way or another. Huge hairy spiders hide in slippers, and beautiful green lawns on the lawns of houses are infested with snakes.
But on statistics, Australia’s main threat is livestock. So, from 2008 to 2017, cows and horses worked together killed 77 people. During the same time, snakes took the lives of 23 people, dogs – 22, and spiders, which everyone is so afraid of, have not killed anyone at all since the 70s.
This, by the way, is not so much – after all, equestrian sport is not as popular in Australia as in the USA. There from horse accidents annually about 100 people die. But American cows are apparently a little kinder than Australian ones, because kill only 22 people per year.
In general, be careful and, if possible, do not get too close to ungulates, regardless of where you live – in Australia, America or in the Moscow region. You will be healthier. Even if Genghis Khan, the greatest horseman in history, died after falls from a horse, then we mere mortals should completely stay away from these creatures.
4. Water
Water, as we know, is the source of life. But don’t let that innocent-looking substance sloshing around in your glass fool you! In fact, this is an insidious killer in front of you.
Statistics The WHO shows that 236,000 people died from drowning in 2019, for example, accounting for almost 8% of total deaths. Very often it is caused by a lack of serious attitude towards water. For example, swimming alone and diving after drinking alcohol.
In addition, water can also cause poisoning if it is dirty. And this is the reason for even more deaths. For example, according to data the same WHO, in 2020, dirty water killed 485,000 people – more than wars (8,200) and natural disasters (87,400) during the same time.
And don’t forget that even the cleanest water can cause you to choke. A very treacherous liquid.
Finally some people suffer illness called aquagenic urticaria. When the skin comes into contact with liquid, they experience excruciating itching and redness. Water from a tap, the sea or from a swimming pool, sweat, tears and saliva – everything causes irritation in them.
In general, to be safe, keep your contact with water to a minimum and drink only cola… Just kidding. Just be careful when swimming and boil or filter liquids before drinking.
5. Mosquitoes
Most people consider these insects to be annoying, but generally harmless. When a small child is afraid of injections, they even calm him down with the phrase “like a mosquito will bite.” But in fact, these bloodsuckers are ferocious predators, which can be called, without exaggeration, the most dangerous living creatures in the world.
By estimates Bill Gates Foundation, diseases spread by mosquitoes kill 725,000 people a year. For comparison: on average, people themselves commit about 475,000 domestic murders during the same time.
In general, mosquitoes clearly demonstrate who is the dominant species on our planet.
Most of these insects are vegetarians, but their females drink blood while gestating and laying eggs to get the protein they need. At the same time they spread fever, malaria, lymphatic filariasis, dengue virus, equine encephalitis virus (make no mistake, people die from it too), Zika virus and many other terrible and potentially fatal diseases.
And your pets, for example, can be infected by mosquitoes with the so-called “heartworm” – an roundworm that attacks the heart and pulmonary artery and causes congestive heart failure.
In general, buy repellent and fight bloodsuckers wherever you find them.
6. Dogs
What predator do you encounter most often? With a bear, lion or wolf? No, with a regular dog. For 12,000 years now, dogs have served us as protectors, companions, hunting assistants, and so on. But, despite our friendship, sometimes they become the cause of a person’s death.
It is known that in the USA alone annually Between 30 and 50 people die from dog attacks. By statistics, the most dangerous breed is the pit bull, then mongrels, and in third place are German shepherds. And all of them are capable of causing very serious injuries to people.
In addition, dogs can transmit people have different diseases. They are the main transmitter of rabies to humans in the world. Between 3 and 18% of dog bite wounds become infected, leading to meningitis, endocarditis, or septic shock.
Even if the dog is absolutely friendly towards you, but is unhealthy, he may reward you with brucellosis, campylobacteriosis, tapeworms, echinococcus, giardiasis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, ringworm, salmonella, scabies and mites.
To to avoid All this, carefully monitor your dog’s health and do not neglect examinations by a veterinarian. Wash your hands and face after handling your pet, especially if he likes to lick you. Don’t let your dog eat things he picks up on the street or fight with other dogs. And be careful when meeting unfamiliar animals.
be careful 🧐