Well knock me down with a feather...while we, laymen, are investigating the
possibility of hollow planets, New Scientists are focusing their time,
energy and resources on this:
>Feedback, New Scientist magazine (UK), June 09, 2001
>http://www.newscientist.co.uk/feedback/feedback.jsp?id=ns229415
>
>EACH YEAR around this time Feedback's favourite government report
>appears--the Home and Leisure Accident Surveillance System report from
>Britain's Department of Trade and Industry. It gives figures for
accidents
>reported by people admitted to a sample group of British hospitals and
>then gives extrapolated estimates for the country as a whole.
>
>First the bad news in this year's report, which is based on 1999 data:
the
>toll of accidents caused by tea cosies is up again, with a national
>estimate of 37 tea cosy injuries, compared with 20 the previous year.
>Equally alarming, the number of accidents caused by place mats--a menace
>we have paid too little attention to in the past--is up from 157 to 165
>across the country as a whole.
>
>These worrying figures are somewhat balanced by a welcome decline in
>another area of concern--sponge and loofah accidents. The shocking
>previous total of 996 nationwide is now down to 787.
>
>But the major causes of concern are still with us. The number of people
>hospitalised after a trouser accident (up from 5137 to 5945) is
worryingly
>high, while the drop in injuries inflicted by armchairs (down from 18,690
>to 16,662) leaves little room for complacency. Hospitalisations caused by
>socks and tights have also risen (10,773 compared to 9843 previously),
>while injuries inflicted by vegetables remain unacceptably high at 13,132
>compared with the previous year's 12,362.
>
>The number of accidents involving tree trunks has also risen from 1777 to
>1810, while leaf accidents have soared from 664 to 1171, with a similar
>increase in bird-bath accidents from 117 to 311.
>
>Many people will also be shocked by the number of accidents caused by
>beanbags, which has risen from 957 to 1317. The seriousness of this
menace
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>becomes clear when measured against the 329 injuries caused by meat
>cleavers or the 439 caused by rat or mouse poison.
>
>In fact, the report makes it clearer than ever that our homes are full of
>unacknowledged dangers. It identifies 3421 people nationwide as having
>been injured by clothes baskets, while other threats include dust pans
>(146 injuries), bread bins (91), talcum powder (73), toilet-roll holders
>(329), clogs (622), false teeth (933) and wellington boots (5615).
>
>As in the past, printed magazines like New Scientist caused far more
>injuries than chainsaws--4371 compared with 1207.
>
>So remember--you can't be too careful.
>
>================
>The UK's Department of Trade & Industry has not placed the latest report
>on its web site yet, but presumably it will be available, when uploaded,
>from somewhere near
>http://www.dti.gov.uk/homesafetynetwork/gh_stats.htm --Richard E