1437 Snowtistic

I wonder about those factoids our statistic-flinging news media get us all in flurry about. It’s almost like they want to get us paranoid.
Like this interesting stat. And I do mean stat—as in when they tell people to hurry at a hospital. Turns out one of the leading causes of death in the US is snow. Not snow like being hit by snow as one would be hit by lightning. Snowball fights are a very small cause of death.
No, snow as in shoveling. Shoveling snow causes an average of 100 deaths a year. And 11,500 emergency room visits too.
“Stat! We got a shoveler here. And he’s cold. Code blue...and shivering...”
Snow shoveling’s most common cause of death is heart attacks. Here’s a recent co-statistic to put things in perspective. The US Airline industry didn’t have a single fatality in 2010, despite more than 10 million flights involving 700 million passengers. It was the third year in the past four without a death.
The conclusion? Maybe we ought to have full body scanners at hardware stores and other places people buy snow shovels.
Shovels are dangerous indeed. Consider that your number of lighting strike deaths in the US typically amount to about 60 a year, and that’s more deaths than those caused by tornadoes, hurricanes, or winter storms.
Okay. I would also suggest avoiding metal snow shovels and/or holding them on high ground during a storm.
And consider this statistic. Despite the indirect efforts of the snow shovel industry, there are more millionaires in the world than ever. 24.2 million people in the world have more than 1 million in net assets. That’s more than the entire population of Australia.
Another interesting statistic? There are no snow shovel related deaths in Australia.
Coincidence? Or conspiracy...
America, ya gotta love it.