Comparative Risks
of
various activities
"Everything is sweetened by risk...To those who seek true and meaningful adventure, a well-tuned sense of fear that's neither blunted nor inflated is an indispensable guide."
Jim Thorton, National Geographic Adventure, June/July 2002
Friends often tell me that my adventures show that I lead a dangerous, reckless life. Indeed, in Latin, the word "Nozzi" can mean "dangerous." However, a look at risk analysis comparing various activities, shows that a number of things I do may be perceived as hazardous, but statistics demonstrate that perceptions can often deceive. That is, I believe what I do is with a sense of fear that is "neither blunted nor inflated." For example...
Days off your life from various activities:
Eating meat regularly = 2,555 days
Smoking a pack of cigarettes daily (men) = 2,250 days
Smoking a pack a day (women) = 800 days
Being 30 percent overweight = 1,300 days
Driving a motor vehicle = 207 days
Alcohol = 130 days
Accidents in the home = 95 days
Being murdered = 90 days
Breathing polluted air = 77 days
Walking down the street = 37 days
Misusing legal drugs = 90 days
Using illegal drugs = 18 days
Coffee = 6 days
Riding a bicycle = 5 days (one study has found that people who regularly commute by bicycle have a 40-percent reduction in mortaility compared to people who do not bicycle) (Sprawl Kills, by Joel Hirschhorn, 2005)
Sources: National Safety Council, National
Center for Health Statistics, FBI, Statistical Abstract of the U.S.,
"Catalog of Risks by B. Cohen and I.S. Lee, "Cancer Epidemiology and
Prevention" by D. Schottenfeld and J.F. Fraumeni Jr.
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Fatalities per million hours
Skydiving = 128.71
General aviation = 15.58
On-road motorcycling = 8.80
Scuba diving = 1.98
Living (all causes of death) = 1.53
Swimming = 1.07
Snowmobiling = 0.88
Passenger cars = 0.47
Water skiing = 0.28
Bicycling = 0.26
Flying (domestic airlines) = 0.15
Hunting = 0.08
Cosmic radiation from transcontinental flights = 0.035
Home living (active) = 0.027
Traveling in a school bus = 0.022
Compiled by Failure Analysis Associates, Inc. (Design News, 10/4/93)
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Annual US fatalities
Motor vehicle deaths = 43,200
Falls = 14,900
Poisoning = 8,600
Drowning = 4,000
Fires, Burns = 3,700
Suffocation by ingested object = 3,300
Firearms = 1,500
Source: National Safety Council, 1997
Worldwide annual fatalities
Getting hit on the head with a coconut = 150
Shark attack = 10
Source: George Burgess, director of International Shark Attack File, 9/02 Rodale's Scuba Diving Magazine
______________________
Annual US fatalities
Boating = 1,063
Scuba diving = 105 (1-2 cases of "Decompression Illness" [The Bends] per 10,000 dives) (7/02 Scuba Magazine)
Snowmobiling = 60
Water skiing = 47
Snow skiing = 41
Skydiving = 31
Snorkeling = 20
Hang gliding = 13
Football = 6
Basketball = 4
Boxing = 2
From Skydiving Magazine, 4/96
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Annual Risk
You will have an auto accident = 1 in 12
You will die in an auto accident = 1 in 5,000
You will die = 1 in 115
You will have a fatal accident as a skydiver = 1 in 1,000
You will die while riding your bike = 1 in 130,000
You will die in an airplane crash = 1 in 250,000
Source: Laudan, Larry. (1994). The Book of Risks.
________________________
US fatalities
Activity |
Million |
Fatalities/ |
Fatalities/ |
Smoking |
145 |
345,000 |
3,000 |
Mountaineering |
0.06 |
34 |
567 |
Hang
Gliding |
0.03 |
13 |
433 |
Parachuting |
0.11 |
30 |
269 |
Hunting |
1.69 |
280 |
166 |
Scuba
Diving |
1.6 |
70 |
43.8 |
All
Accidents |
2,360 |
92,911 |
39.3 |
ATVs |
6.7 |
240 |
35.8 |
Boating |
38.2 |
1,066 |
27.9 |
Swimming |
102 |
2,300 |
22.5 |
Driving |
2,400 |
47,900 |
19.9 |
Bicycling |
85 |
1400 |
16.5 |
Boxing |
0.5 |
4 |
8 |
Football |
12 |
12 |
1 |
Basketball |
21.2 |
7 |
0.3 |
Baseball |
13.9 |
2 |
0.14 |
Soccer |
8.2 |
1 |
0.012 |
Data for
the above table is derived primarily from NATIONAL SAFETY COUNCIL, supra
note 27, at 83. That for smoking and mountaineering are from Morrall, A
Review of the Record, 10 REGULATION 25-27 (1986). Data for bicycling and
all terrain vehicles are derived from other sources. See supra
notes 24 and 35; infra notes 79 and 109
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Some of these lists show distortions when you try to compare activities. For example, the two "annual U.S. fatalities" lists do not control for how frequently the activity is done in the US. The "million hours" list is misleading because the average person does not, say, skydive as often as drive a car, even if they skydive regularly. Yes, you are more likely to die if you skydive every day as opposed to drive a car every day, but who skydives every day?
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