Beware of the tea cosy. . it could put you in hospital - Scotsman.com News
Paul D. Fernhout
inherently dangerous without knowledge and safety precautions".
Which certainly is true. Here is something related to think about to put DIY
manufacturing risk in perspective.
From:
"Beware of the tea cosy. . it could put you in hospital"
http://news.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=2500903
"""
... And although Valery McConnell, editor of the magazine, admits it does
seem "daft that packaging which is designed to protect the product ends up
damaging the customer instead", food packaging is not alone when it comes to
provoking accidents in the home - and you don’t need to be attempting DIY or
mowing your lawn to end up with a bizarre injury. Our homes are littered
with everyday items all ready to trip us, hurt us, and otherwise land us in
hospital.
In fact, the statistics claim throughout the UK, three million people are
hospitalised because of an accident in the home - and in Scotland it’s
believed around 1000 people are seeking some sort of medical attention every
day following a home accident.
So just what are the treacherous items lying in wait to trip us up - quite
literally?
Well, there’s the humble tea cosy for one which is posing a threat to
human health. Thirty-seven people were injured so seriously by the pot
warmers in 1999 that they were admitted to hospital. Most of the injuries
were caused by scalding, usually after an attempt to pick up a teapot by its
cover rather than the handle, while others followed trips on cosies lying on
slippery kitchen tiles or lino.
Then there’s the whole getting dressed issue. Yes, something as simple as
putting on your clothes could land you in accident and emergency for the
rest of the day.
The number of injuries perpetrated by trousers on their wearers in 2002 -
the last year for which such figures were collated by the Home Accident
Surveillance System - stood at 5310, while putting on socks, tights or
stockings saw 11,788 people taken to hospital. Falls caused by getting stuck
during an over-hasty attempt to get dressed were mainly responsible, with
trips in messy bedrooms close behind.
However, it’s not always the clothing which is to blame - for example,
one case involved a patient injuring their toe when they ran into a wall.
They were "wearing socks at the time". But it was footwear which was
involved in the majority of clothing accidents - with a total of 379,000
injuries caused by trainers, high heels, sandals, platforms and countless
other types of footwear.
Other menaces around the home included hair brushes (1394 incidents),
vegetables (14,149) piles of ironing (5248) and cotton wool buds (8569).
False teeth caused 933 accidents, clothes baskets 2768, toilet roll holders
287, brillo pads 226, talcum powder 123, and deodorants 431.
Injuries inflicted by furniture are also common with 43,173 people
attending hospital after a close encounter with a sofa, while armchairs
caused 15,355 accidents and the much-maligned pouffe 16,339.
Of course there are items which you expect to cause injury, such as
scissors. One accident report states a woman was carrying a pair in the
waistband of her skirt - sharp end up - when she bent down and stabbed
herself in the stomach.
The problem, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of
Accidents (RoSPA) is that people are more relaxed about safety at home than
they are elsewhere.
A spokesman says: "Some items do seem quite bizarre, but the fact is that
2.8 million people end up in hospital every year from an accident, half a
million of them under the age of five. It seems odd there are so many more
accidents involving trousers than chainsaws, (1148) but everyone has
trousers and hardly anyone has chainsaws."
He adds: "People are regulated at work and pay attention when driving.
But when they get home they relax and let their guard down." ...
"""
First seen here:
"Swine Flu Kills Obese People Disproportionately"
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1300135&cid=28673693
"So let's say that the above are "true" and that your hypothetical scenario
where hundreds of thousands of people across the globe start dying within
the YEAR of swine flu (an increase of several orders of magnitude over the
current scenario). That's absolutely NEGLIGIBLE (don't try for the "human"
aspect - of course any single death is devastating, but you have to put
these things in context) in the grand scheme of things, even against
diseases that we have perfectly good existing medicine for and also those
conditions that are currently incurable. Swine flu is, statistically
speaking, an interesting little blip on the low end of the radar - the rest
of the signal is almost 99.9% diseases that are much more scary, prevelant,
existing and that we know *lots* more about - some are even man-made
problems like tobacco smoking. You've fallen for statistical propoganda with
zero understanding of statistics. It's nothing to be ashamed of, so has
*everyone* else I've heard mention swine flu in the last few months. ...
67,000 people are injured each year trying to peel the cellophane off a
packet of sandwiches, open a ready meal or open a ring-pull can.
More than 150 people a day - have accidentally stabbed themselves when
trying to prise the top off a jar or opening a ready meal with a knife
A total of 379,000 injuries caused by trainers, high heels, sandals,
platforms and countless other types of footwear. I'll leave you to read
through the rest of the statistics in that article and I'm fairly sure a lot
of them are UK-only statistics. FFS... THIRTY SEVEN PEOPLE were injured by
tea cosies in 1999, so seriously that they were admitted to hospital. Do you
know what a tea cosy is? It's a woolen warmer for a teapot. More people were
injured by tea cosies in the UK than have died from swine flu here so far.
Does that put it into perspective for you?"
--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/