Something about the world must want us to live, since there are so many everyday things that seem to want to kill us.
Among people between the ages of one and 44 in the US, accidental injuries are the leading cause of death. They are the fifth cause of death overall for the youthful set.
Since most of our lives consist of doing fairly ordinary things like driving a car or walking across a room, it follows that most of our dangerous accidents began with our everyday activities.
Top 7 dangers at home
Slipping or tripping
Leaving wounds unattended
Having unprotected electrical sockets
Careless handling of poisonous chemicals
Multi-tasking in the bathtub
Flamboyant events, like terror attacks or plane crashes, grab the headlines and focus our anxieties, but the reality is this: Daily life harbors more danger. We forget about this until some celebrity is injured or killed by some easily avoidable hazard in our everyday lives.
It goes without saying, of course, that seatbelts and safe, sober driving habits are one of the great life extenders. The number of reckless celebrities whose carelessness has cost them big grows every year.
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According to the National Safety Council, the odds of dying from simply being a car passenger are 1 in 272 over a lifetime (1 in 21,132 in a single year). Walking is good for the heart, but the lifetime odds of dying as a pedestrian are 1 in 623.
Going out is thus bad. But, unfortunately, staying home is even more dangerous. The lifetime odds of dying from a mere fall--from slipping or tripping, off of furniture or steps, for example--are 1 in 184, or 1 in 14,329 in a single year.
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Simple precautions that can make this less hazardous include minimising sharp corners, extra care as you age and tending to the wounds you do incur.
Then there are the objects in the house that the ultra wary must consider, like unprotected electrical sockets, gas burners, swimming pools, poisonous chemicals and combinations thereof.
Celebrity fatal accidents
Top-earning dead celebrities
Reviewing the fatalities of the famous, a surprising number of deaths occur in or around the bathtub, particularly from drowning or electrocution. Religious writer Thomas Merton died when a radio fell in the bathtub. Avoid multitasking while you soak.
