The original working title of Laura Lee's new book was "Death Wish Made Easy."
For potential liability issues, that one just didn't fly. Instead, Lee's publisher went for "100 Most Dangerous Things in Everyday Life and What You Can Do About Them" (Broadway Books, $12.95).
Quite a mouthful for the title of a quick read about the perils of cotton swabs, toilets and dust. Dust might cause more premature deaths than car accidents, after all.
"It was supposed to be a manual. Thrill seekers are doing the wrong stuff. They're hang gliding, but you really should be eating dinner," Lee says. That's where the real danger lurks.
There are choking hazards on your every plate and enough cancer-causing chemicals in the most organic of veggies to make hang gliding look safer than a padded room.
"I wanted to poke fun at the culture of fear," she says.
"You often hear you are more likely to die in a car accident than in an airplane accident, but we are more afraid of flying.
"However, you are more likely to be injured walking."
And gravity kills.
"In almost every category, there are people falling and whacking their head against something," Lee says.
Some 12,000 Americans die yearly from falls.
Lee spent many months reading through medical journals and studies and combing through nationally kept statistics on accidents in the United States and England. The American keeper of the record is the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, which keeps track of injuries related to consumer products. The English counterpart — the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents — reports tea cozies caused 40 injures in the United Kingdom in 1999.
The accidents that jumped out at Lee, a Detroit author of trivia and reference books, included injuries from crutches, artificial Christmas trees and lawn ornaments.
"I had this image of garden gnomes attacking, or of people doing battle with pink flamingos," she says. "Actually, the reason lawn ornaments cause so many accidents is because they classify the mailbox as a lawn ornament and it is people backing up or crashing into them."
Each entry contains a "what you can do" section to minimize risk of peril, such as: Practicing falling; pick up your toys; and stop rocking the vending machine. She also points out when there is absolutely nothing you can do to avoid risk: What are you going to do, stay in bed and stop eating vegetables? Because of this, the author says, disclaimers for such a book are necessary.
"I wouldn't want to be sued by someone who says I told them something isn't dangerous," she says.
So, just in case, look out for that meteor.
