Death Rate

Hu's Index Health/Death

Death Spectrum: Top Causes of Deaths in USA | Index Home

Death Rates

Summary - Asians have lower death rates for nearly all causes. This has been noted for Hispanics, but Asian rates are even lower. This explains the highest life expectancy of any race / national category worldwide.


Some death rate ratios for states:
California 1993      W1.0 B-1.08  H1.2 A3.1  O3.1
Massachusetts 1994   W1.0 B-1.56  H3.9 A4.8  O4.3



url: http://www.arthurhu.com/index/ahealth.htm#deathrank
@@Rank

"Death Spectrum"

Annual US Deaths Due to Various causes
Compiled by Arthur Hu
---------------------------------------------------
                           Number  User   Rate       
Acc. Chlorpyrifos poison        0 
Disneyland                     0.2
Latex gloves                   0.3
Shark Attack                    1
Bean Bag Chair suffocation      1
Acetaminophen child             1
Baby walker                     1
Amusement Park                1-2 260M 1 in 260M
Baby playpens                  1.5
Newspaper boy                   2 WSJ 7/2002
Stage Diving (concert) 1997     2
Car Trunk child 89-99 avg       2
Soda Machine Toppling           2
Furniture tipover under5 yrs    3
Flammable sleepwear           2-3
Fireworks 1999                  4 Newsweek 8/13/2001
HS College football play heat   4
Gyrocopters 1996-2001           4
Bunk Beds                       5
Hawaii Helicopters              5
Charter Bus                     6
Old Seattle I90 bridge          7 
Bath seat drownings             8        1 per 100,000 seats
Roller Skates                  10  27M   1 in 2.7 million
Children 2-6 in Car Trunk 98   11        1 in 160,000
Window blind cords             13
Coal Mines 2001                14
Airbag Children                15
Amtrak passenger/crew          15        1 in 4.2 million
Elderly Bed Rails 85-99        16
Drawstring hoods 1995          17
Snowmobile avalanche 01-02     18     Newsweek Apr 15 02 p8
Children household poisons     20
Dog Bites                      20        1 in 12 million
Killed by guns in school 86-9  23
Avalanche                   20-25
Mud/Landslide               25-50
---#1 natural disaster?----------
Playground                     25
Skydiving                      30
Alaskan Fishermen              30
Skiing deaths                  34        1 in 10 million
Boating WA 94                  36
15 passenger vans 90-02        40
Hurricane 1940-81              47
Construction Crane             50        1 in 1000 operators
Bee Wasp stings                50
Personal Watercraft            54
Killed School Bus 86-9         58
1999 Bus deaths                58
Lightning '95                  89
Chickenpox                     90
Needle Sticks                 100
Fire Ants                     100
'99 child in adult car belt   105
Flood 40-81                   109
Candles                       126
Tornado 40-81                 128
Police Officers 2000          151
Lightning 40-81               188
Airline                       200
Car Deer Collisions           211
Campylobacter(chicken)   200-1000
IllImm Mex-US Border '97      300
Bicycle Under 14              300
Childbirth                    302
CJD brain disease         300-400
Heat related illness          318 Newsweek 8/13/01
Struck by trains 1999         530
CO Poisoning                  594
General Aviation              600
Children under 4 cars         700
Recreational Boating 1996     714
Bicycle 1995                  800
Railroad 1999                 805
Child pedestrian[3]         1,100
Water borne disease 50-     1,200
Agriculture                 1,300
CO Poisoning                1,500
Rec Boating 1973            1,754
Car Hit by SUV U Michigan   2,000
Motorcycle                  2,500
Car Phone 2002 Harvard      2,500
Subcompact cars NHTSA     2-3,000
EPA Second Hand Smoke       3,000
Fire                        4,500
Drowning                    4,621
Teen car accidents          5,500
Pedestrian accidents        6,000
Occupational Injuries       6,200
Adverse Drug Reactions      7,000
Food Illness                9,000
Skin Cancers                9,733
Railroad 1917              10,000
Bladder Cancer             11,700
Falls                      12,662
Shooting Murder            15,456
Diet related Cancer        16,000
Alchohol Driving           17,126
Influenza                  20,000
AIDS                       20,000
Radon (EPA high)           20,000
Lukemia                    21,000
Suicide 1994[2] (#9)       31,142
Prostate Cancer            40,000
Breast Cancer              44,560
Motor Vehicle              50,000
Lukemia & Related          56,000
Colon Cancer               60,000
Mass Smallpox Vacc         71,250
Unintended Injuries (#5)   87,000
Medical Mistakes           98,000
Alchohol Related          100,000
Adverse Drug Reactions    106,000 JAMA '98
Trauma                    125,000
Medical Negligence est    150,000
Lung Cancer               158,700
Diabetes related          169,000
Influenza/pneumonia  (#6) 200,000
Obesity (#2?)[1]          300,000
Tobacco related (#1?)     500,000
Cancer  (#2)              500,000
Diseases of heart (#1)    733,834

Annual Worldwide Deaths
--------------------------------
Hunger under 5 Oxfam        15.0mil
#1 Heart Disease 1998        7.4mil 13.7%
Hunger under 5 UNICEF        6.6mil
#2 Stroke 1998               5.1mil 
Water Disease                5.0mil
#3 Acute Respiratory 1998    3.5mil 
   Malaria                   2.7mil
Physical inactivity(WHO)     2.0mil
#4 AIDS 1998 #1 Infectious   2.3mil
Diarrheal diseases WHO       2.2mil
#5 Tuberculosis 1998         1.5mil
Malaria WHO                  1.0mil
Natural disasters           10,000?
Free Diving                    100


[1] Nov 1993 Journal of American Medical
Association Actual Causes of Death (a factor, if not actual cause
of death, but many say figure is "unreliable")
[2]
Suicide in the U.S.A.: 1994American Association of Suicidology.
[3] Seattle Times Company February 9, 1998 To keep
kids from being injured, focus on cars, bikes, skates, walkers by
Lisa Pemberton-Butler
[4] UNICEF 1997


@@Auto

Seattle Times 11/8/02 Auto Report ST 500,000 15 passenger vans on the
road, 424 killed in rollover accidents since 1990. Mostly fords, some
GM, no mention of Dodge.



@@Black

\clip\96\04\lesscare.txt Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 21:54:09 -0400 From:
NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound) Study says U.S. blacks, poor get
less medical care Reuter. Survey of Medicare recipients founds that
black men over 65 had a death rate 19% higher than whites, 16% for
black women compared to whites, blacks were discharged sooner and
less likely to visit a doctor.

\priv\95\01\blakdeat.txt - 31% of difference in black death rates
can't be explained by incomes or health risks.
LIFE Page 1D - February 9, 1990 High death rate among blacks hard to
explain By Tim Friend, USA TODAY 

keywords: Asian.Health.Death.Black
\priv\95\01\blakprem.txt - 80% of premature deaths 15-24 are black
Lifeline - LIFE Page 1D - November 29, 1990 BLACK LIFE EXPECTANCY By
David Landis, USA TODAY     

@@Cancer


%%Breast Cancer

Cornell Breast Cancer and Environmental Factors
Penn State Breast Cancer Information

@@City     

]]California
Asians have the lowest death rate in California

  doc938\death1.xls, death2.xls to all causes
  B1.08 H-1.2 A-3.1 O-3.1

]]Massachusetts

Asians have the lowest death rate in Massachusetts (not age
adjusted)

\doc\94\18\massdet.wk1 - Mass deaths
W1.0(1.04) B-1.56 H-3.85 A-4.80 O-4.17

report ommitted Asians from all detailed statistics except
overall death rate

]]Los Angeles

doc\94\13\unitedwy.txt United Way report for Los Angeles
"Death rates differ widely by race with Asians and Latinos
having the lowest death rates for most conditions."


@@Fire

z74\clip\2003\10\firecig.txt Philip Morris Pays $2 Million to Burn
Victim New York moves closer to implementing fire-safe cigarette law
Parts excerpted from the Los Angeles Times, October 2, 2003 CLEBURNE,
Texas smoking materials — primarily cigarettes — are also the nation's
biggest cause of fatal fires.  Smoldering cigarettes account for about
one-quarter of U.S. fire fatalities. These fires also cause about
2,000 injuries and hundreds of millions of dollars in property losses
each year.


@@Free Diver

World's top free diver plunges to death trying to set record.
ABCNEWS.com 10/17/2002 Diver Dies While She Tries to Break World
Record "Free diving is dangerous, and in some cases deadly sport.
There are about 5,000 free divers around the world, and an estimated
100 die each year."


@@Inactivity

SLOTH IS A DEADLY SIN
z74\clip\2003\10\diet.txt
May 9th 2003
The Economist
Global Agenda
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reckons
that sheer physical inactivity causes the deaths of about 2m people each
year. Gluttony is another: rising consumption of fatty foods has combined
with increasingly sedentary lifestyles to cause a global epidemic of
obesity. In just five years, between 1995 and 2000, the number of clinically
obese people ballooned from 200m to 300m, of whom 115m are reckoned to be
suffering from weight- related health problems.


@@Job


http://money.msn.com/content/invest/extra/P63405.asp
z74\clip\2003\10\mostdang.htm
10/15/2003

The 10 most dangerous jobs 
Occupation Fatalities per 100,000   
Timber cutters                 117.8  
Fishers                         71.1  
Pilots and navigators           69.8  
Structural metal workers        58.2  
Drivers-sales workers           37.9  
Roofers                         37.0
Electrical power installers     32.5  
Farm occupations                28.0
Construction laborers           27.7  
Truck drivers                   25.0
 
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics; survey of occupations with minimum
30 fatalities and 45,000 workers in 2002

highway accidents were the biggest overall killer in 2002, accounting
for a quarter of all worker deaths. Falls killed 13%. Men were still,
by far, the most likely to be killed on the job. Ninety-two percent of
all workplace fatalities were male. 

Among the 441 women who died on the job, though, the chief cause of
death was homicide.



@@United States

\doc\94\18\priv\ussafe.txt - deaths by various low causes getting
better Deaths attributed to drunken driving also declined, dropping 2
percent from 1992 and falling to their lowest number since tracking
began. - 
    
    Air accidents  like the one at Charlotte two weeks ago that killed
    37 people prompt particularly high public concern. The major
    scheduled US airlines did have more accidents in 1993 than the
    year before, up from 16 to 23. But no one died in any of the
    aircraft involved, and the fatal accident rate hit its lowest
    level since 1980. 
    
    An official with the Consumer Product Safety
    Commission said, for instance, that*child-resistant*packaging was
    responsible for an end to an ''epidemic'' of children's deaths
    from swallowing medicines and household chemicals. In the early
    1960s, about 450 children died each year. Now the number is only
    about 20. 
    
    Likewise, strict
    federal standards on the flammability of children's  sleepwear has
    driven the number of related children's deaths from 60 in 1972 to
    2 or 3 a year now. There has also been more than a 25 percent drop
    in fatalities related to consumer products in the last two
    decades. 

\doc\95\04\table030.wk1 - death to various diseases. No disease where
Asians > 1.00, male or female


@@Water

z57\clip\2002\08\water.txt
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/display/inn_news/news5.txt
Water related diseases could kill up to 76 million
By COLLEEN VALLES
The Associated Press
The World Health Organization estimated in 2000 that 2.2 million
people die each year from diarrheal diseases alone. Other estimates
that include various water-related diseases put that number higher
than 5 million a year.


@@World

AIDS TOPS TB AS #1 INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN 1999 
\doc\web\99\07\aidstop.txt Seattle Times 5/11/99 p. A11 Report: AIDS
overtakes TB as deadliest infectious disease WHO report.  4th overall
cause worldwide.  TB is down, AIDS about the same, 2.28 million
worldwide deaths. #1 heart disease 7.38, 13.7%, strokes acute
respiratory 5.1m, 3.45 million deaths. Cardiovascular and cancer 43%
worldwide in 1998. TB killed 1.5m in 1998, #8. AIDS leading cause of
death in Africa 19% of 1998 deaths, most continents heart disease

\clip\96\04\worldeat.txt Date: Sun, 15 Sep 1996 15:48:09 -0400 From:
NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound) Fatal Germs Being Surpassed by
Other Causes of Death By LAURAN NEERGAARD Associated Press Writer
Noninfectious disease will account for seven of every 10 deaths in
poor countries by 2020, up from fewer than half today. Only in
sub-Saharan Africa will germs still kill more people than
noninfectious disease.

\doc\94\17\worldeat.wk1 - world death rates

@@Home

Death in the home Falls #1, Poisoning #2


@@Low-risk

\priv\95\04\deatrisk.txt - risk of death by low rates


@@Obesity

If true, these figures would put

December 2001 Surgeon General report says 300,000 Americans died from
obesity related causes in 2000. WSJ 6/13/2002 "Is Food the Next
Tobacco" Shelly Branch.

300,000 according to Nov 1993 Journal of American Medical Association
Actual Causes of Death (a factor, if not actual cause of death, but
many say figure is "unreliable"


@@Railroad

Highway Deaths Up Slightly in '99 By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID= Associated
Press Writer USA Highway Deaths 1999 ... Railroad deaths totaled 805,
down from 831 in 1998. There were 530 people killed when struck by
trains _ often trespassers on rail property _ down from 601. ...
www.geocities.com/45peter/USAhiwaydeaths1999.html -

There were also 746 people killed while riding bikes, down from 757 in
1998; 755 deaths in medium and heavy trucks, up from 739; 58 bus
deaths, up from 38; and 696 people killed on other ways on the roads,
up from 641. 



@@Rank

http://www.cdc.gov/nchswww/datawh/statab/unpubd/mortabs/gmwk250a.htm
Deaths for 72 Selected Causes, 1993, 1994, and 1995 Worktable 250A
lists the number of deaths for NCHS' mortality tabulation list of 72
selected causes of death.
\clip\97\24\death.pdf

TOP CAUSES OF DEATH
8 Dec 1997 Michael Fumento
1996 data.

Diseases of heart           733,834
Malignant neoplasms         544,278
Cerebrovascular diseases    160,431
Chronic obstructive         106,146
  pulmonary diseases 
Accidents and adverse        93,874
  effects
Pneumonia and influenza      82,579
Diabetes mellitus            61,559
HIV infection                32,655
Suicide                      30,862
Chronic liver disease and    25,135
 cirrhosis                   
SOURCE: Monthly Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 46,
no. 1 (S2), "Births and Deaths: United States, 1996." 

THEN AND NOW 1900 VS 2000
Newsweek Fall 2001 Health for life
Causes of death in US population
Percent of all deaths

1900
11.8 Pneumonia
11.3 Tuberculosis
8.3  Diarrhea/enteritis
8.0  Heart disease
6.2  Stroke 

1998
30.3 Heart disease
23.0 Cancer
 7.0 Stroke
 5.2 Respiratory diseases
 4.1 Accidents

Death rate (approx from chart)
      All   Infectious
1900  1600  600
1950  1000  100
1996   900   10

from: http://www.lightningsafety.com/stats2.html
NUMBER OF DEATHS BY NATURAL HAZARDS,
                                        1940-1981
   (after Kessler, 1988)                total Annual
                          LIGHTNING     7,741 188
                          TORNADO       5,268 128
                          FLOOD         4,481 109
                          HURRICANE     1,923  47

   Note: Holle, et.al. (1993) states lightning deaths are underreported in Colorado (1950-1991) by at least 28%; Lushine
   (1996) states lightning deaths underreported in Florida (1970-1994) by 31%.
   [ Data compiled by National Lightning Safety Institute, tel. 303-666-8817 ] 


@@Travel

"As Man and Beast Clash on Highway" James P. Sterba A 1995 study by
Michael R. Conover at Utah State University found deer-vehicle
collisions injured 29,000 and killed 211 people annually.  Trivial out
of 43,000 highway, but more than commercial airlines, bus and train
accidents. Wall Street Journal Aug 1, 2002