People are aware of the obvious fears: spiders, dying alone, the overall state of our Commander in Chief. Thankfully, your wonderful friends on the internet are there to provide you with a whole new set of fears for you to fret ove as you go about your day to day life.
Reddit user, u/PBarnyak, wanted to know what to look out for when they asked:
What is more dangerous than people think?
Out Of Nowhere
Electricity. You can't see it, you can't smell it, you can't hear it, but that motherf-cker can kill you!
I learnt that the hard way when I was a kid.
Now as a grown a-- adult I stay the f-ck away from anything that could put me in close or direct contact with electricity.
You can't smell electricity, however when electricity forms plasma arcs or burns material, it often times creates ozone, which has a very distinct smell that I can best describe as 'burning electrical' smell.
And if you smell it, it's probably a good idea to figure out where it's coming from before too late.\
Never Underestimate The Dullness
A dull knife. One minute you're struggling to cut an onion, the next minute your mangled finger is hanging on my a sliver of skin because you used too much force and slipped.
Wait, Anyone Is Allowed To Drive Those Big Trucks?
Uhauls.
Those self-move vehicles are some of the most dangerous trucks on the road since anyone can drive them with no extra training (like real truck drivers get) and they're harder to maneuver than your average car. Think about every idiot you see on the road, they could be driving the Uhaul truck like it's their Prius, give them a very wide berth.
Sheep Are Dangerous. Never Forget.
Farm animals.
The sweeter they look the more ravaging they can be since they catch you off guard. 4 years Vet - 1 broken nose from sheep jumping on me, 2 broken ribs and a broken humerus from a horse kick, 1 toenail lost from herding bulls and my foot getting caught in the inside of their tracks.
Mixing It All Together
Mixed drug overdose.
A lot of teenagers cant afford enough or get pure enough opiates, mdma, booze etc. to overdose. But if kid A can steal moms painkillers and kid B can swipe some liquor and kid C has a prescription to adderal that he traded some to kid D for Xanax.. now you have 4 kids with access to a potentially fatal combo.
Wait, What?
In a litteral way, Remember Ricky Bobby running around, shouting he was on fire? Dropping to his underwear running around?
Invisible alcohol fires are a thing. In fact, race car drivers can experience being on fire, an no one will realize they're on fire. It's horrifying.
Death From Above
If you in vacation or find yourself near a coconut tree. Unless they are smaller DONOT go near them. Slightest of wind, or over weight stock will cause then to drop and they will kill you. Some animals eat coconut and leave the shells at top the tree and no warning when they fall. To prevent the animal from climbing, pictures of snakes are drawn in the tree trunks.
Grew up in house with 12 coconut tress, had few close calls.
Weaponized Air
Air.
Specifically, air under pressure, high velocity air flow, etc. Those "MAX PSI" numbers on tires are not a joke.
Air compressors aren't a toy.
Seriously. DON'T SMOKE AT GAS STATIONS.
Smoking in a servo (gas station).
I have a friend who used to work at a servo. One night he caught someone smoking while filling their car, and told him over the PA to put it out. It's unknown whether it was an accident or not, but next thing he saw was the pump, the car, and the guy go up in smoke. Luckily he was quick enough to shut off the pumps from inside, but he never found out about the guy, we assumed either he died or was burned so bad he might as well have.
The Smallest Of Foes With The Biggest Of Threats
Ticks
They can paralyze you if you're sensitive.
Pass several diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted fever and Lyme disease.
There is now a condition happening on the Ease Coast where the person developes a severe allergic reaction to most meat protean. Do not insert Vegan joke here. Most can still eat turkey and seafood.
Sigh...This.
Working in a bar, especially for women.
I used to be a cocktail waitress at a popular hipster club in my city. This guy grabbed my ass, and I shook him off and tried to keep walking. Then he grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go, insisting that I dance with him. I told him I was working and couldn't and finally managed to get away. He did the same thing to a coworker. We alerted security, but we had to handle the guy carefully because we were pretty sure he had a gun on him, and he was extremely intoxicated. The specific club didn't allow guns, but my state does allow guns in bars, so I'm sure people brought them in anyway if they were concealed.
Stuff like that happened so frequently that I ended up eventually quitting; that wasn't the only reason, but I was tired of feeling unsafe at work.
Burn, Baby, Burn
Burning PVC. If someone throws some old PVC siding (the fake plastic stuff they put on houses) into a fire, if you inhale the smoke and gas your lungs are ruined and you are pretty much a dead man.
Burning plastics in general emits nasty thick black smoke that is full of harmful carcinogens. 2-3 breaths of it will make you unconscious, you can gather quite a bit of information about a fire from the smoke.
Please check your smoke alarms people, they save lives.
Go To Bed
Not getting enough sleep
I went through a period of bad insomnia, like no more than 1 hour a night if I was lucky enough to even get that. I couldn't even function. It loterally felt like I was going insane.
Who Knew Tossing Young Women Into The Air Was Deadly
Cheerleading, people get a ton of injuries doing that, apparently throwing people around and stacking them on top of each other is not always a good idea
Moo...To Death
Cows.
Cows kill a lot of people each year compared to the "scary" animals.
I lived next to a small cow farm growing up. 99.9% of the time they were docile and sweet and you could go right up to the fence and feed them. But just one time I saw the bull get actually mad (not posturing and showing off for his ladies) and he cracked the fence post we were standing on the other side of. We stopped feeding the cows for a while after that.
You'll Never Look At Animatronics The Same Way Again
Hydraulic systems.
3000psi hydraulics won't even hesitate to remove your limbs.
Adding to that, a leak in a hose under pressure can result in a nearly invisible 5,000 to 10,000 pound spray of hydraulic fluid depending on the application. It can punch straight through flesh and tends to follow bones when it gets inside. It's corrosive, so you can't just leave it. Everything it touches has to be irrigated. This can include cutting along the path of the injection injury, opening the wound, and spraying it out with saline solution. Needless to say, if you have to have that done, recovery takes a while. Not getting it done will mean your tissue being destroyed and potentially losing the affected body parts.
Always Have A Partner
Hiking by yourself
Seriously, last year, a guy I grew up with disappeared. The local area has numerous hiking spots, some that can be a bit dicey.
Long story short - he fell and died. The saddest part was he obviously was knocked unconscious or died instantly, because he was only a 5-10 minute hike from the nearest access point / road, and he did have his phone on him. Still, he wasn't found for days when he was missing.
Be safe out there folks - you don't need to be in the middle of nowhere to have a fatal accident.
We Don't Want The Smoke
Steam.
I work in power plants. Not scared of anything else I'm around, and I use explosives for work, but f-ck steam.
And boilers. The one in my elementary school exploded, and the local newspaper said probably sixty kids would have died if it happened during school.
It'll Never Come Back
Loud noise exposure.
There's no cure for tinniuts, hyperacusis and hearing loss.
Younger me thought that this was BS from boomers so we'd turn down the music. Besides, we've got hearing aids to help with that!
Nope. If you hear buzzing in your ear, it's now there forever. And no amount of money or technology can make it even a tiny bit better.
The Miracle Of Life And Death
Pregnancy and giving birth
When you learn how many ways being pregnant can kill you it makes you realize how much of a miracle it is that our species has survived.
This is exactly why I'll never change my mind that pregnancy should be 100% voluntary and not "forced" via legislation.
There are many ways pregnancy can kill you or cause negative life-long issues. People should have the option to... not go through that.
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