optical SETI

Days lost per lifetime:

CAUSE DAYS LOST (on average) per lifetime

being an unmarried male

3500

being a smoker (male)

2250

heart disease (average)

2100

being an unmarried female

1600

being 30% overweight

1300

being a coal miner

1100

cancer

900

being 20% overweight

900

consuming an additional 100 Cal/day

210

average vehicle accidents

207

from pneumonia or flu

141

alcohol (US av)

130

accident in home

95

suicide

95

diabetes

95

homocide

90

legal drug misuse

90

having an accident (avg risk job)

74

drowning

41

job with radiation exposure

40

falls

39

having an accident (safe job)

30

burns

27

energy generation

24

illicit drug use

18

poison

17

firearm accident

13

natural radiation

11

medical x-rays

7

coffee (contains carcinogens)

6

oral contraception

5

bicycle accident

5

catastrophes (all)

4

diet drinks (carcinogens)

2

nuclear reactor accident (antinuclear group)

2

nuclear react accident (pronuclear estimate)

0.02

home smoke alarm

–10

pap test

–4

require airbags on all cars

–50

safety improvements 1966-1976

–110

mobile coronary care units

–125


(from Bernard Cohen, a retired physics professor from Carnegie Mellon University)

Increase your deathrate by one part in a million (1 PPM):

  • smoke 1.4 cigarettes (not per day -- total!)
  • spend 2 days NYC (from air pollution, 1976)
  • spend 3 hours in a coal mine (accident)
  • travel 10 miles by bicycle (accident)
  • travel 300 miles car (accident)
  • travel 1000 miles by jet airplane (accident)
  • travel 6000 miles by jet airplane (cancer from cosmic rays)
  • live 2 months in Denver (cancer from high average radiation)
  • live 2 months in stone or brick building (cancer from high average radiation)
  • take 1 chest x-ray (not counting the benefit of catching a disease)
  • eat 40 tablespoons Peanut Butter (cancer from aflatoxin)
  • live 2 months with a smoker
  • eat 100 charcoal-broiled steaks
  • drink 1 yr Miami water (chloroform H2O)
  • 30 cans sacharine soda
  • live 5 years at boundary of US nuclear power plant (cancer from radiation)
  • live 20 years near PVC plant (cancer from vinyl chloride)
  • live 150 years at 20 miles from a nuclear power plant
  • live 5 miles from nuclear plant for 50 years (nuclear accident)
(from Bernard Cohen, a retired physics professor from Carnegie Mellon University)


Fatalities per million hours:

                                                 Fatalities
     Activity                                    per million hrs
     --------                                    ---------------
     Skydiving                                      128.71
     General Aviation                                15.58
     On-road Motorcycling                             8.80
     Scuba Diving                                     1.98
     Living (all causes of death)                     1.53
     Swimming                                         1.07
     Snowmobiling                                      .88
     Passenger cars                                    .47
     Water skiing                                      .28
     Bicycling                                         .26
     Flying (scheduled domestic airlines)              .15
     Hunting                                           .08
     Cosmic Radiation from transcontinental flights    .035
     Home Living (active)                              .027
     Traveling in a School Bus                         .022
     Passenger Car Post-collision fire                 .017
     Home Living, active & passive (sleeping)          .014
     Residential Fire                                  .003

     Compiled by Failure Analysis Associates, Inc. (Design News, 10-4-93)