Some Things are Really Dangerous to Your Health.
By Dr. Peter W. Kujtan, B.Sc., M.D., Ph.D.
The interesting thing about Coroners work is that you don't need to make mistakes to learn things. There are plentiful opportunities to learn from other peoples mistakes. I decided to take all this useful stuff out of the dusty archives and try to compile a list of risky behaviors that I continue to see. I hope that in passing this on us can all make the world a little safer.
1. Allowing children to swim unsupervised for more than seconds. Children should swim on the buddy system, and know how to summon help. Alcohol and water mix, but alcohol and swimming can be deadly.
2. Drinking and Driving. Alcohol is still a major factor in many fatal car accidents, especially when mixed with driver inexperience.
3. Bicycle riding on busy roads. Our road system is simply not developed to the point of allowing bikes to share these busy roads with cars safely. Riding at night compounds the risk. I applaud all efforts by urban planners to include dedicated bike lanes in new development, and encourage municipal councils to adopt and develop these suggestions. In the meantime, I see nothing but trouble when groups or individual cyclists attempt to share narrow roads and lanes with large fast moving chunks of metal, at times propelled by impaired operators. Lets teach our kids to dismount off their bikes and walk across those busy roads.
4. Jogging on a busy road, especially on roads that allow the choice of pavement, packed gravel, grass or sidewalk. The struggle between ego and safety can be fatal. Pick the safe path. Your valiant efforts at fitness will continue to be noticed by the busy drivers
5. Failing to wear a seatbelt. Fatalities that involve ejection of unrestrained persons ruin my day all the time.
6. Standing outside to watch a thunderstorm. This makes as much sense as taking shelter under a tree during a lightening storm. Rain drops will only make you wet, but lightning kills.
7. Waiting a few days with that chest pain before deciding it is not going away. Why not use that uncertain time to do some estate planning.
8. Attempting to operate problematic heavy industrial equipment without the proper training or knowledge of the equipment can result in deadly consequences.
9. Ignoring extreme weather warnings, because they do not materialize every time. Every family should have an emergency plan in place. It is a rough guideline of what to do, where to meet, etc. in case of disaster. Heavy snow, extreme heat, floods or tornadoes, take the time to discuss general principles before it happens.
As a new scholastic season begins let’s all make it a safe one.