Some Numbers about Health and Safety

This is a little follow up to last week’s post about the risks of travelling in SEA.

Recently published numbers revealed that every year smoking takes a toll of 140,000 dead in Germany. Alcohol is responsible for another 74,000. Traffic accidents in Thailand kill 13,700 per year in a slightly smaller population.

Per 100,000 population the death counts for Germany are: - Smoking: 175 - Alcohol: 92.5 - Traffic: 4.5 - Medical malpractice: 2.14 - Homicide: 0.84

Getting data for Thailand is difficult enough but some numbers are available. Per 100,000 population these are the casualties: - Traffic: 19.6 - Homicide: 5.3 - Malaria: 0.11

To sum things up: It is 20 times more likely to be killed by medical malpractice in Germany than by Malaria in Thailand. The number of alcohol related deaths in Germany is almost five times as high as the number of traffic fatalities in Thailand.