For whom the bell tolls?

For whom the bell tolls:

• Tobacco (435,000 deaths, 18.1 percent of total U.S. deaths)
• Poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000 deaths, 16.6 percent)
• Alcohol consumption (85,000 deaths, 3.5 percent)
• Microbial agents (75,000)
• Toxic agents (55,000)
• Motor vehicle crashes (43,000)
• Incidents involving firearms (29,000)
• Sexual behaviors (20,000)
• Illicit use of drugs (17,000)

I'd like to say that the above causes of death are amazing to me -- but I live in the South. What *is* interesting in the above article is the explanation that the things we fear most are not in fact significant risks.

Tags:

• alcohol
• causes
• of
• death
• death
• tobacco
• sex
• bacteria