更可能置我們於死地的十件小事(下)

er's Heat Will Kill You Before Lightning

5.被熱死的概率遠高於觸電而死

Not only does it simply get hot in summer, but it's also the time of year where one might have the greatest fear of encountering temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. Lightning can reach temperatures of 30,000 degrees Celsius (50,000 °F), causing severe burns, as well as killing an average of 51 people each year in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, most lightning strike victims are not struck directly but instead succumb to simply being near another object that is struck. This is why it always best to move indoors during a thunderstorm, as lying flat in a field will do nothing to save you from indirect strikes.

夏天的高溫常常令人心生畏懼，但比起高溫，更可怕的一定是夏季雷雨時的閃電。閃電發生時溫度可達到30000攝氏度（50000華氏攝氏度），其高溫足以使事物劇烈燃燒，美國境內每年平均將近51人喪生於雷電之下。事實上，雷擊致人死亡的原因與大家的認知剛好相反。大多數的閃電並沒有直接擊中受害者，而是人們接觸了受到雷擊的物體後才觸電。所以在雷雨天氣中，避免受到雷擊最佳的做法就是待在室內，因爲即使平躺在一個空曠的平地中，我們照樣會受到雷電的非直接雷擊。

While you're running inside, you might want to check your air conditioner, as you're over 10 times more likely to die from excessive heat exposure, which generally kills 618 people each year in the US. Dying by heat is a surprisingly nasty way to go. As your temperature rises, in addition to sweating, your body tries to cool down by pumping more blood closer to the skin to radiate heat. If you can't cool down, more and more blood is pumped away from your internal organs. The lack of oxygen from blood strains the organs, while the continuing heat buildup causes an inflammatory response across the whole body, making it even harder to cool down. Once your temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 °F), your brain will get less blood due to increased intracranial pressure, and damaged tissue in the blood may cause your kidneys to fail. If your body makes it to 49 degrees Celsius (120 °F), and you're not already dead, your cells will suffer direct heat damage.

當在室內跑步時，我們會去打開空調來涼快一下，因爲你喪命於高溫的機會很可能增加了10倍，據統計，每一年美國大約有618人因熱致死。熱死無疑是世上最糟糕的死法。隨着身體溫度的逐漸升高，身體除了會自行排汗降溫，皮膚下的血液速度還會不停地加速來幫助身體進行散熱。如果身體溫度持續不下，體內器官中大量的血就會被抽走。缺乏氧氣的血液有損於身體器官，而身體持續的升溫會導致體內產生炎症從而使人體更難降溫。人體溫度一旦達到40攝氏度（104華氏攝氏度），腦部供血量減少。顱內血壓升高，這樣血液裏帶有的壞死組織會對腎臟造成巨大的傷害。如果人體溫度達到49攝氏度（120華氏攝氏度），體內所有的細胞就會被高溫殺死，人們會就此喪命。

y More About Wind Chill Than Tornadoes

4.風寒比龍捲風更危險

Hypothermia is an arguably sneakier killer than heat. Mild hypothermia may only manifest as the usual attributes of “being cold,” such as shivering, fingers feeling numb, and so on. If shivering isn't enough to warm the body back up, it will do the opposite of the heat response described above and divert blood away from the extremities and into the internal organs.

較之於高溫發熱，低溫症更像是個“無形殺手”。輕度低溫症患者可能只會出現“發冷”的症狀，例如身體打顫、手指發麻等等。但如果發抖不足以使身體暖和起來，那麼它就會使血液改流，繞過四肢，流入內臟。

Violent shivering will begin once the body's temperature drops to 35 degrees Celsius (95 °F) but cease below 32 degrees Celsius (90 °F). At this point, the sufferer will be unable to think clearly and may even irrationally remove clothing. Unconsciousness comes at 30 degrees Celsius (86 °F). At this point, a hypothermia victim may appear dead, as their body has slowed its metabolism to reduce oxygen requirements. Heart rate and respiration are quite slow. The heart finally will stop at 20 degrees Celsius (65 °F), though arrhythmias may cause death as soon as 28 degrees Celsius (82 °F)sure to excessive cold kills roughly 1,300 people per year in the US. It would have to be a truly terrible and record-shattering weather year for tornadoes to match that. They kill 75 US residents each year on average. That chill you may feel in your fingers as you clear snow off your car this winter is a much more pressing danger than those thunderheads you may see in the distance this summer.

當體溫降到35攝氏度（95華氏度）時，患者會開始劇烈顫抖，但一旦低於32攝氏度（90華氏度），則會停止。這時候，患者會變得意識模糊，無法清晰地思考問題。有些人甚至會任性地脫去衣物。當體溫降到30攝氏度（86華氏度）時，患者會開始喪失意識。此時此刻，他們會呈現出一種瀕死的狀態。因爲患者的身體會主動減緩新陳代謝以減少自身對氧氣的需求量，其心率和呼吸也會變得十分微弱。而當體溫降到20攝氏度（65華氏度）時，心臟最終會停止跳動。其實當體溫降到28攝氏度（82華氏度）時，心率失常就已經很有可能會奪走患者的性命。粗略來算，美國平均每年有1300人死於挨冷受凍。其殺傷力之強，大概也只有那破天荒的龍捲風氣象年可以與之相“媲美”了。因爲一般來說，美國平均每年死於龍捲風的公民約75人。在冬天，當你用手掃除車上的積雪時，你的手指也許會感受到那種寒冷——風寒的寒冷，這遠遠比你在夏天時看到的遠處隱約的雷雨雲砧要危險得多。

Poisons More People Than Carbon Monoxide

3.食物中毒比一氧化碳中毒更危險

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an even stealthier winter killer than hypothermia. You can't see it, taste it, or smell it, and it won't even make you sneeze or cough. Cars produce it every day, and your furnace might make the next cold winter night your last. After being inhaled, CO kills when it enters the bloodstream. It bonds to the hemoglobin in blood, which normally bonds with oxygen and carries it throughout the body. Carbon monoxide makes blood useless. Every year, 430 people die in the US of CO poisoning.

一氧化碳是比低溫症更甚的“冬日無形殺手”。它看不見，嘗不出，聞不到，甚至也不會引發你的噴嚏和咳嗽。汽車每天會散發大量的一氧化碳，而你正在使用的火爐也許會讓你見不到下個冬天的太陽。一氧化碳進入人們血流後，它的“殺戮”就開始了。血液中的血紅蛋白一般與氧氣結合，爲人體全身供氧。一氧化碳極易與血液中的血紅蛋白結合，使血紅蛋白無法與氧氣結合，於是造成人類缺氧，由此，人體中的血液變得毫無用處。在美國，平均每年有430人死於一氧化碳中毒。

Don't run away from your gas stove just yet; you need it to make sure your food is properly cooked. Foodborne diseases kill 3,000 US residents per year. A plurality of food poisoning cases are caused by poultry, although fruits, nuts, and leafy greens cause many cases as well. Several deaths might be prevented by simple measures such as proper hand-washing and cooking food to the correct temperature.

聽到這兒，不要急着從你的煤氣爐前跑走，你還要用它確保你的食物是不是煮熟了呢！幾乎每年都會有3000名美國公民死於食物傳染疾病。大多數食物中毒案例是由家禽引起的，但是其他種類諸如水果，堅果和綠葉蔬菜也都位列誘因榜單。其實只需實施一些簡單的措施就可以避免許許多多的死亡事件，比如勤洗手,比如將食物煮熟。

Doctor's Bad Handwriting Will Kill You Long Before Ebola

2.醫生的糟糕書寫會在你感染埃博拉病毒前殺死你

Ebola is a terrifying disease. The pathogen attacks nearly every organ and system in the human body, sparing only bones and muscles. Connective tissue such as collagen is effectively dissolved. Without that foundation, the skin floats over liquefied tissue, and the sufferer will bleed spontaneously from various orifices. This only gets worse once bloody vomiting and diarrhea commence. Blood loss ultimately kills an Ebola victim.

埃博拉病毒是一種可怕的疾病。它“生性殘暴”，會對人體中每個器官以及各個身體系統展開攻擊，直到人們只剩下骨頭和肌肉才肯罷休。同樣恐怖的是，它會使膠原蛋白這類結締組織溶解。假如缺乏了膠原蛋白，人的皮膚會浮在液化組織上，患者會因此失血。帶血嘔吐或者腹瀉，是患者病情惡化的信號。失血最終會成爲壓死埃博拉病毒受害者的最後一根稻草。

Fear of the disease led airports in the US and other countries to screen incoming passengers from West Africa. Despite this, health care workers in the US contracted Ebola, sparking fears of an outbreak. Four people were diagnosed with Ebola in 2014; one died, while the others recovered and were released from treatment. The one person who died caught the virus in ents at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, the site of three of the four Ebola cases, faced a much greater risk even during the stays of the Ebola patients: their doctors' bad handwriting. A doctor's frequently illegible notes or prescriptions may seem like joke fodder, but it leads to an average of 7,000 deaths every year in the US. Consider that 3.2 billion prescriptions are written annually. Bad writing can easily lead to the wrong dosage, and an unclear abbreviation might lead to the wrong medication being dispensed.

因該疾病殺傷力太強，各國機場會對南非入境乘客的身體狀況進行嚴謹的檢測，試圖以此控制病毒在本國的傳播。儘管如此，依然有醫護人員在美國感染埃博拉病毒。2014年，四人被確診爲埃博拉病毒。最終一人死亡，其他3人幸運康復出院。據瞭解，這位不幸死亡的患者是在利比里亞感染了病毒。位於德克薩斯州達拉斯的德克薩斯長老會醫院中住着衆多埃博拉病毒感染者，這裏的病人面臨着比埃博拉病毒更加危險的挑戰——醫生的潦草處方。醫生的潦草字跡，會導致美國每年平均7000人死亡的惡果。這是因爲，醫生每年要開出32億份藥單，寫的不好容易導致錯誤的劑量，不明確的縮寫也可能導致藥物分配錯誤，這些都會無情奪走病人的生命。

e Drinking Kills More People Than All Other Drugs Combined

1.酗酒是最猖狂的殺手

Sending a child off to college can certainly be stressful for concerned parents. They've kept their kids away from cows, bundled them up in the winter, cooked food just right, and made their pediatricians print every prescription. Now the time has come for the kid to leave the nest, get a degree, and ultimately land a good job. Of course, there's always the frightening possibility that he or she will get hooked on drugs while they're away. A bigger concern might be how much the kid has to drink.

兒行千里母擔憂，送孩子離家外出讀大學，父母的心也不能放鬆。從小，爲了保證孩子的健康，父母算是操碎了心。他們讓孩子遠離母牛，注意孩子在冬日的保暖，將食物煮得恰到好處，甚至讓兒科醫生打印每一張處方。可是，總有些危險的誘惑在花花世界的某處等待着才離家的孩子，比如，毒品。

Roughly 80,000 Americans die each year from binge drinking. Most of these deaths may not be from direct alcohol poisoning, but car crashes and drunken violence can be just as about half as many people die from drug overdoses in the US each year: for example, 41,000 in 2011 and 44,000 in 2013. These figures include overdoses on legal prescription drugs; illegal drugs constitute less than half of overdose deaths. In other words, parents should worry more about frat parties than a marijuana-smoking college roommate.

據統計，每年約有8萬美國人死於酗酒。酗酒者多數不是直接死於酒精中毒，車禍和酒後暴力纔是罪魁禍首。相比之下，死於藥物過量的人則少了接近一半：例如2011年有41000人，2013年有44000人。這些數字包括法定處方藥過量；非法毒品的死亡算是比藥物過量的一半人還要少。換句話說，比起擔心孩子讀書期間交往了吸毒的朋友，還不如擔心朋友在聚會時有沒有喝醉。

翻譯:叫我王二白 來源:前十網