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Is America Safe |
| America is a dangerous place. You are more likely to die from a workplace injury, a medical mistake or auto accident than from a terrorist incident. |
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Whichever way you look at it America is a dangerous place. You are much more likely to die from a workplace injury, a medical mistake or an auto accident than you are from a terrorist incident.
Every year in the United States, there are about 5,700 fatal work injuries - 15 every day, say Robert Jordan and Don Philpott, co-authors of Is America Safe? Each week in the United States, an average of 20 workers are murdered and 20,000 assaulted while at work. Homicide is the leading cause of death for women in the workplace.
Medical errors cause about 250,000 deaths a year, the third largest cause of death in America after heart disease and cancer, and several recent studies suggest that this figure is rising year on year.
Apart from medical errors, Americans are at risk from increasingly virulent and resistant strains of viruses and new diseases. The Centers for Disease Control estimate that in a worst case scenario, if pandemic flu hits the U.S. there would be 734,000 hospitalizations and up to 207,000 deaths. The cost to the nation could be as much as $167 billion.
There is an auto accident every 5 seconds somewhere in the U.S. Every year about 43,000 people are killed on the nation's roads - one every 13 minutes - and around 3 million injured. One in four drivers was involved in a crash in the last four years and more than 40 percent of auto fatalities are alcohol-related.
Every year about 16,500 Americans are murdered - one every 31.8 minutes. According to FBI statistics more than 90 percent of murder victims are adults and almost 80 percent are male. In most cases the victims knew their assailants.
It is also estimated that:
Every 5.6 minutes someone commits a forcible rape,
Every 1.3 minutes someone is robbed,
Every 36.8 seconds some is the victim of an aggravated assault,
Every 14.6 seconds someone commits a burglary,
Every 4.5 seconds someone is the victim of larceny-theft, and
Ever&#
121 25.0 seconds someone's automobile is stolen.
Man-made disasters take an enormous toll on Americans. Hurricane Katrina, the worst natural disaster to hit the U.S. killed more than 1,600 people, displaced over 1 million and cost 400,000 people their jobs. The cost to the nation is estimated at between $150 and 200 billion. Experts agree that we have entered a cycle that will result in more hurricanes and stronger hurricanes over the next few years.
Tornadoes cost the U.S. billions in damages every year killing and injuring thousands. There are also threats from earthquakes, wild fires, tsunamis and flooding.
Though we have emerged as one of the most powerful democracies the world has known, it was not without sacrifice. America has never been “safe” - it is not presently safe - and the odds are that it will never be safe. But that doesn't mean that we need live in constant fear. It means that we do need to be aware of what threats we face and make informed decisions as to how we, as a nation, as a community and as individuals, respond the those threats.
Is America Safe? by Robert Jordan and Don Philpott, is published by IsAmericaSafe.com Publishing. Publication date June 1, 2006.
Don Philpott has been writing, reporting and broadcasting about security, civil unrest and terrorism for almost 40 years. For 20 years as a senior correspondent with the Press Association-Reuters wire service, he traveled the world reporting on major events and trouble spots including Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Israel, South Africa and the Far East. He is now senior correspondent with Homeland Defense Journal and writes for magazines and newspapers in the United States and Europe. He is the author of more than 50 books including the recently published Integrated Physical Security Handbook and is a regularly contributor to radio and television programs on security issues.
Article Source: www.activehowto.com
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Posted 2006-05-08 20:52:08 By Don Philpott
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