America's Accident Capitals
The leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 44 used to be disease. Thanks to modern medicine, that's no longer the case. The leading cause of deaths in Americans under 44 years of age: accidents. And it's accidental poisonings that have increased the most.
Since 2003, more people have died from accidental poisoning (except for those killed in motor vehicle accidents) than any other form of unintentional death. More Americans between the ages of 35-60 are killed from accidental poisoning than from motor vehicle accidents. The gap narrows every year. In Massachusetts, the leading cause of unintentional deaths in 2005 was accidental poisoning.
The Center for Disease Control sites prescription drugs as the leading cause of accidental poisoning. "The combined evidence seems to indicated that the increase in poisoning mortality is primarily among adults (20-64) of both sexes, and is mainly attributable to abuse of opioid analgesics," says the CDC report.
As alarming as the poisoning epidemic is, falls, suffocation, drowning and car accidents are all on the list of the leading causes of accidental deaths.
Forbes.com and the National Safety Council, ranked US cities by per-capita rates of accidental death for the 10 leading causes of unintentional death in 2004. With 2004 being the most recent date available. the rates for accidental deaths does not change substantially from year to year. However, deaths from accidental poisonings have increased so much that Forbes.com used a limited amount of data available from 2006 rather than using the 2004 which was dated.
To read the complete article click here
