If you judge buy the media and the public education programs, you might be inclined to think that teenagers and young adults (aged 25-24) are the age group most likely to kill themselves. Actually, they have the second-lowest rate of suicide. (The absolute lowest rate is among kids aged 5 to 14; children younger than that are apparently deemed incapable of consciously choosing to end their lives.) It is the elderly, by far, who have the highest rate of suicide.
In the US, of every 100,000 people aged 75 to 79, 16.5 kill themselves. For those 80 and over, the rate is 19.43. This compares to a rate of 8.15 per 100,000 for people between the ages of 15 and 19, and 12.84 for people aged 20 to 24.
As with every age group. men are far more likely to kill themselves, but among the elderly this trend reaches extreme proportions. Of people 65 and older, men comprise a staggering 84 percent of suicides.
Because men commit the vast majority of hara-kiri among old people, looking at these male suicide rates makes depressing reading. For guys aged 75 to 79, the suicide rate is 34.26 per 100,000. In the 80 to 84 group, men's suicide rate is 44.12. When you look at men 85 and older, the suicide rate is a heart-breaking 54.52. Compare this to the suicide rate for dudes in their mid to late teens: 13.22 per 100.000.
It is true that suicide ranks as the second or third most common cause of death in young people (depending on age group), while it is number 15 and under for various groups of the elderly. Still, the suicide rate among the young is equal to their proportion of the population, while the elderly are way overrepresented as a group. And older people are cut down by a great many diseases and disorders unknown to the young, which naturally pushes suicide down in the rankings.
The reasons why this suicide epidemic are highly speculative and would be too lengthy to get into here. However, we can rule out one seemingly likely explanation --- suicide among the aged is invisible because they usually O.D. on prescription drugs or kill themselves in other ways that could be easily mistaken for natural death in someone of advanced years. This doesn't wash, primarily because guns are the most common method of dispatch. Of suicides over 65, men used a gun 79.5 percent of the time, while women shot themselves 37 percent of the time. It's hard to mistake that for natural causes.
The sky-high suicide rate among the elderly applies to the entire world, not just the US. Plotted in a graph, suicide rates by age group around the globe gently curve upward as age increases. When the graph reaches the final age group, the line suddenly spikes, especially for men. Worldwide, men 75 and over have a suicide rate of 55.7 per 100,000, while women in the same age group have a rate of 18.8. This rate for older men is almost three times the global rate for guys aged 15 to 24, while the rate for older women is well over three times the rate for young gals in that age group.
Monday, April 20, 2015
Work Kills More People Than War
The United Nations' International Labor Organization has revealed some horrifying stats:
The ILO estimates that approximately two million workers lose their lives annually due to occupational injuries and illnesses, with accidents causing at least 350,000 deaths a year. For every fatal accident, there are an estimated 1,000 non-fatal injuries, many of which result in lost earnings, permanent disability and poverty. The death toll at work, much of which is attributable to unsafe working practices, is equivalent of 5,000 workers every day, three persons every minute.
This is more than double the figure for deaths from warfare (650,000 deaths per year). According to the ILO's SafeWork program, work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together and the resulting loss on Gross Domestic Product is 20 times greater than all official assistance to the developing countries.
Each year 6,570 US workers die because of injuries at work, while 60,225 meet their maker due to occupational diseases. (Meanwhile, 13.2 million get hurt, and 1.1 million develop illnesses that don't kill them.) On an average day, two or three workers are fatally shot, two fall to their deaths, one is killed after being smashed by a vehicle, and one is electrocuted. Each year, around 30 workers die of heat stroke, and another 30 expire from carbon monoxide.
Although blue collar workers face a lot of the most obvious dangers, those slaving in offices or stores must contend with toxic air, workplace violence, driving accidents, and (especially for the health-care workers) transmissible diseases. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration warns that poisonous indoor air in nonindustrial workplaces causes "thousands of heart disease deaths and hundreds of lung cancer deaths" each year.
But hey, everybody has to go sometime, right? And since we spend so much of our lives in the workplace, it's only logical that a lot of deaths happen---or at least are set into motion---on the job. This explanation certainly is true to an extent, but it doesn't excuse all such deaths. The International Labor Organization says that half of workplace fatalities are avoidable. In A Job to Die For, Lisa Cullen writes:
In the workplace, few real accidents occur because the surroundings and operations known; therefore, hazards can be identified. When harm from those hazards can be foreseen, accidents be prevented...
Most jobs have expected, known hazards. Working in and near excavations, for example, poses the obvious risks of death or injury from cave-ins... When trenches or excavations collapse soil was piled right up to the edge, there is little room to claim it was an accident.
The ILO estimates that approximately two million workers lose their lives annually due to occupational injuries and illnesses, with accidents causing at least 350,000 deaths a year. For every fatal accident, there are an estimated 1,000 non-fatal injuries, many of which result in lost earnings, permanent disability and poverty. The death toll at work, much of which is attributable to unsafe working practices, is equivalent of 5,000 workers every day, three persons every minute.
This is more than double the figure for deaths from warfare (650,000 deaths per year). According to the ILO's SafeWork program, work kills more people than alcohol and drugs together and the resulting loss on Gross Domestic Product is 20 times greater than all official assistance to the developing countries.
Each year 6,570 US workers die because of injuries at work, while 60,225 meet their maker due to occupational diseases. (Meanwhile, 13.2 million get hurt, and 1.1 million develop illnesses that don't kill them.) On an average day, two or three workers are fatally shot, two fall to their deaths, one is killed after being smashed by a vehicle, and one is electrocuted. Each year, around 30 workers die of heat stroke, and another 30 expire from carbon monoxide.
Although blue collar workers face a lot of the most obvious dangers, those slaving in offices or stores must contend with toxic air, workplace violence, driving accidents, and (especially for the health-care workers) transmissible diseases. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration warns that poisonous indoor air in nonindustrial workplaces causes "thousands of heart disease deaths and hundreds of lung cancer deaths" each year.
But hey, everybody has to go sometime, right? And since we spend so much of our lives in the workplace, it's only logical that a lot of deaths happen---or at least are set into motion---on the job. This explanation certainly is true to an extent, but it doesn't excuse all such deaths. The International Labor Organization says that half of workplace fatalities are avoidable. In A Job to Die For, Lisa Cullen writes:
In the workplace, few real accidents occur because the surroundings and operations known; therefore, hazards can be identified. When harm from those hazards can be foreseen, accidents be prevented...
Most jobs have expected, known hazards. Working in and near excavations, for example, poses the obvious risks of death or injury from cave-ins... When trenches or excavations collapse soil was piled right up to the edge, there is little room to claim it was an accident.
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