Death Has Moved

Blogging about death has moved to http://causeofdeathbook.blogspot.com/ .
Want to know if you're more likely to die from hot tap water or herpes, a coconut or a hippo, a shark or hemorrhoids? Read the book "Cause of Death" and check the blog for answers to those and other really important questions about how we die. The more you know about death, the longer you'll stay alive.

Wash Your Hands

I was recently telling a friend of mine some of the things I learned researching death statistics for the Cause of Death book that have changed the way I do things. I’m more careful now when I cross the street, for example. And, although I’ve always been pretty good about washing my hands, I am even better about it now. It turns out there are millions of microbes that live on our hands. While most of them are harmless, many cause the illnesses that are responsible for over 10 million deaths a year in the world. In 2002, for example, at least 17% of all 57 million deaths in the world were caused by the common bugs that can live on your hands. These deadly microbe-caused diseases include flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, TB, measles, whooping cough, meningitis, some types of hepatitis and approx. 18% of all cancers. For more interesting info on microbes, check this out: http://www.microbeworld.org/know/important.aspx and don’t forget to wash!

Americans and Guns

According to a 7/9/08 Reuters article, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine said that the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital will lead to more deaths and accidental injuries. According to Justice Antonin Scalia (who was in the 5-4 majority on the decision) citizens may prefer handguns for home defense because they “can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police.” I would agree with the New England Journal of Medicine. Based on the stats related to deaths in the U.S. from firearms, it’s more likely those citizens with easier access to guns will be pointing them at their own heads, or at the heads of other people they are mad at, than using them for self defense in their homes.
Number of firearm caused deaths in the USA, 2005
17,002 Suicides (out of 32,637 total suicides)
12,352 Homicides (out of 18,124 total homicides )
789 Accidental discharges (out of 117,809 total accidental deaths)
143 Number of private citizen justifiable homicides (out of 192 total)
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0938674920080709
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf (Table 10)
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/murder_homicide.html (Table 14)

Writer Commits Suicide in July

Recent news reports Sci-Fi writer Thomas M. Disch committed suicide in his New York apartment July 4th. He had been suffering from depression but I wonder if it was the summer heat that tipped the scale. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2004 most suicides occurred during the month of July (the least occurred in December). Although more Americans die from exposure to excessive natural cold (676 deaths in 2004) than excessive natural heat (226 deaths in 2004), if you add in the nearly 8,400 deaths from suicide June through August, heat becomes a more formidable threat. Then, again, I could be thinking about heat because it is unnaturally hot in California right now.

http://www.locusmag.com/2008/Disch_Obit.html
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/

Long Life and Marijuana

Of “The Thirteen” countries with long life expectancies, five are in the top rank of annual cannabis users, including the U.S. at #12. With drug arrests on the rise, if you're one of the long living, pot smoking, U.S. citizens, you just might spend part of your long life in jail!

Although the CDC reported only 1 death from cannabinoids in the US, out of over 26,000 reported deaths from drugs in 2002 (including accidents and suicide but excluding alcohol), according to the FBI, 45.3% of all 2002 drug abuse violations were for Marijuana (which would mean about 697,100 people arrested for cannabis out of 1,538,813 total drug abuse violation arrests).

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_02/pdf/02crime4.pdf (Crime in the US, 2002 page 4)
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm#incrate (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Crime Facts at a Glance)

“The Thirteen”
Population > 10 million + life expectancy > 78 years
Country and Life expectancy

1. Japan 82.07
2. *Canada 81.16
   
3. France 80.87
4. *Australia 80.73
5. *Italy 80.07
6. *Spain 79.92
   
7. Greece 79.52
8. The Netherlands 79.25
9. Germany 79.10
10. Belgium 79.07
11. The U.K. 78.85
12. *The U.S. 78.14
    
13. Portugal 78.04

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html

Top Cannabis Using Countries (over 10% annual use age 15-64)
Country and Cannabis use

1. Papua New Guinea 29.5%
2. Micronesia Fed. State 29.1%
3. Ghana 21.5%
4. Zambia 17.7%
5. *Canada 16.8%
   
6. Sierra Leone 16.1%
7. Cyprus 14.1%
8. Nigeria 13.8%
9. New Zealand 13.4%
10. *Australia 13.3%
11. *The U.S. 12.6%
12. *Italy 11.2%
13. *Spain 11.2%
    
14. Jamaica 10.7%

http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2007.html

Find more fun stats in the book Cause of Death: A Perfect Little Guide to What Kills Us by Jack Mingo, Erin Barrett and Lucy Autrey Wilson

And They Called the Wind Lucy

Well, not yet!

I subscribe to a biweekly online newsletter featuring current and upcoming Census Bureau data releases (see link below) which can be interesting. Today they sent an update that the 2008 Hurricane season begins June 1^st. I thought maybe they would name a storm Lucy this year but that’s not the case. There is, however, a lot of interesting information on storms and storm naming to be found.

Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory on retired names: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/retirednames.shtml

World Meterological Organization on storm names:http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/tcp/Storm-naming.html

Census Bureau special feature on the north Atlantic hurricane season:
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/012006.html

To subscribe to the Census Bureau’s newsletter:
https://ask.census.gov/cgi-bin/askcensus.cfg/php/enduser/doc_serve.php?1=AvcG~woTDv8SMp~~GkYe~yL~Jvsq~yr~&2=CPUForm