What I appreciate about these statistics, is that they sum up how misdirected our safety concerns can be based on we see or hear in our media. I was familiar with this report from a few years ago, but it never received the attention it deserved as we we were on the verge of a media blitz covering the economy and the presidential election.
The information is still just as pertinent three years later and goes to show how irrational our fears can be if we unaware of the the actual prevalence.
In the last 6 years:
Nearly 3,000 Americans have died from terrorism
30,000 Americans have died from food poisoning
240,000 Americans have died on our highways
600,000 Americans have died from medical mistakesSource:
U.S. News & World Report 9/03/07,
pg. 24
Randall Larsen
A retired US Air Force Colonel
The Director of the Institute for Homeland
Security in Alexandria, VA
Author Our Own Worse Enemy
At first glance I quickly started trying to find the error in this information, looking to give doctors a way out of this predicament. Yet, the numbers speak for themselves as these are THEIR admitted statistics. Just think of how high the actual statistics are.