We’re often told that the world is dangerous, and in many ways, that’s true. But not every threat is obvious. Sometimes, the things that can cause real harm are part of everyday life, the kind we barely think about until something goes wrong.
That does not mean we need to fear everything around us. It simply helps to be more aware, because a little knowledge and caution can go a long way. Redditors recently shared some important reminders that are well worth keeping in mind, so scroll down to read them.
#1
Mixing bleach with common household cleaning products.
Image source: Beavis_Of_Nazareth, Nothing Ahead/Pexels
#2
Anything under tension. Piano strings, lifting straps, fly lines in a theater. Transferred force is still force, and if something goes wrong it can go really wrong.
Image source: h2opolodude4, www.kaboompics.com/Pexels
#3
Black ice looks like a harmless wet road until you’re suddenly a passenger in your own car. Learned that the hard way.
Image source: luisaquinoa, Triplec85
#4
Apparently going under general anesthesia.
Image source: aflowerandaqueen, Viktors Duks/Pexels
#5
As someone who immigrated to Canada, nothing prepared me for when I saw a moose for the first time.
Image source: Brief_Strawberry_826, Pixabay/Pexels
#6
Motorcycle riding.
I used to be friends with an ER/trauma surgeon who worked at a level 1 trauma center in a major west coast city. He told me he spent every weekend doing amputations from motorcycle accidents, all day and night, week in and week out.
He actually rode a motorcycle himself, but said he was *extremely* cautious due to everything he had witnessed on the job.
I was in a motorcycle accident myself as a passenger, and the fear will stay with me forever. I’m very lucky to be alive. (I got flipped off the bike while the driver was doing a wheelie, and I landed on my head. Wear helmets friends.).
Image source: PunchDrunky, 4 Isaac Mitchell/Pexels
#7
Water Intoxication in infants.
Intoxication is where you drink enough water to upset the balance of water in your brain. It’s usually a percent of your body weight, and can be fatal.
Because babies weigh next to nothing, that fatality threshold is VERY quick.
Image source: RandoAussieBloke, Sergey Makashin/Pexels
#8
This one is going to be hard to believe, but digging holes at the beach. Beach sand is incredibly heavy, and it will seemingly stay put for a long time… until it buckles. If the wall is taller than your head, you will likely suffocate before someone can get to you if you get buried. There are multiple examples of this.
Image source: Sgt_Radiohead, Ozgur Aslan/Pexels
#9
Living in a home with mold.
Image source: squish059, Eva Bronzini/Pexels
#10
Asking ChatGPT for emotional support— forming a false relationship with a chatbot like that can drastically disrupt the way you interact with real people, even leading to delusions, psychosis, etc.
Image source: AcuteHazard, Airam Dato-on/Pexels
#11
Forcing cyclists to ride in the street with cars and not having dedicated protected bike lanes.
Image source: ich_bin_alkoholiker, Ramon Linares/Pexels
#12
Sleeping with your baby.
Image source: Previous_Mood_3251, Eric Moura/Pexels
#13
Electricity. Can’t see it, can’t hear it or can’t smell it. But it could blow you up. This is coming from a licensed electrician.
Image source: MDscarf, Steve Johnson/Pexels
#14
I’m a Florida native, so I learned about them early in life, but riptides.
If you’re caught in one it can pull you away from the shore so fast people on the beach won’t even notice. Children especially can be caught in one and dragged. A lot of folks’ first reaction is to fight and swim against the current or to the side, but you just can’t overcome the current. It’s moving at 8 to 10 feet per second. Exhaustion sets in and you slip beneath the waves.
They always say to look out for signs of a riptide…a split sandbar or a section of the breakwater that’s flat when the rest is wavy, and stay away from it. If one catches you, don’t fight, just tread water and ride it. After 100 yards or so the current will let up and you can swim diagonally back to shore.
A gentleman vacationing here from Maine drowned this weekend nearby in a riptide while trying to rescue his child.
Stay vigilant at the beach.
Image source: imabigbanana11, Zeze/Pexels
#15
A wet bathroom floor. All it takes is one slip and you can hit your head on your toilet, your sink, or your bathtub.
Image source: Prudent_Swimming_296, cottonbro studio/Pexels
#16
Hiking into the Grand Canyon, 12-17 [fatalities] every year.
Image source: Sensitive_Scar_1800, Raziella R/Pexels
#17
Driving while tired.
People treat it like it’s no big deal, but it’s basically like driving with slowed reactions and bad focus…
Image source: VermicelliRoutine530, Anastasiia Chaikovska/Pexels
#18
Moving water. 6 inches of moving water can knock you off your feet.
Image source: Jaded_Leek4518, Michael Obstoj/Pexels
#19
Dogs. I hang out with a lot of large dogs. It’s weird what can pop them off but when they do it can get pretty bad. They can be surprisingly strong in weird ways you’re just not ready for.
Image source: kramapple, Rodrigo Hanna/Pexels
#20
Doing small stunts. Hopping fences, climbing trees, sliding on ice. It’s shockingly easy to catch on something or fall and break or tear something.
Image source: TheDUDE1411, Anastasia Shuraeva/Pexels
#21
Leaving your drink unattended at a party with strangers.
Image source: DependentBat5432
#22
Superheated steam. If you’re around high pressure equipment and you see the white smoke, that’s condensation. The steam is mostly invisible and can mess you up bad.
Image source: kilkarazy
#23
Garage door springs. When I was a teenager a cable attached to one in our family garage let loose and sent the spring through the garage wall into the yard. They have tons of tension on them and are extremely dangerous.
Image source: ThisistheHoneyBadger
#24
Confined spaces (basically places you can get into that don’t have good airflow, like many caves, abandoned tunnels, etc.).
You’ll occasionally hear about some incident where like five people [passed away] because someone went into a confined space that didn’t have oxygen (our respiratory drive actually works by detecting high CO2, not low O2, so it’s possible to not even realize you’re suffocating). The first person passes out, then someone sees the person collapsed and goes in to help them, they [pass away] too, and the cycle has been known to repeat a few times because people don’t want to leave a friend unconscious in some hole, and they don’t realize the danger.
Image source: Flammable_Unicorn
#25
I spent four summers as a lifeguard, and the truly terrifying thing wasn’t the big crashes or the kids doing flips. It was how utterly silent and quick drowning actually is. You expect flailing and screaming, but it’s usually just a person, often a child, quietly slipping under the water right next to you. No splash, no cry for help. Just gone in seconds if you’re not paying absolute attention.
Image source: ConstantThroat102
#26
The American diet. Have you seen our colon cancer rates for people under 45?! It’s kinda terrifying.
Microplastics are a close second.
Image source: notaverysmartuser
#27
Diabetes. It runs in my family, and everyone who’s had it has managed it well, but oh my god if you let it run rampant it’s devastating.
Image source: Corgi_with_stilts
#28
Tiredness. People brag about running on 4 hours of sleep like it’s a flex. It’s just slow brain damage with extra steps. .
Image source: YogurtclosetMaster16
#29
Carbon monoxide completely invisible, no smell, deadly.
Image source: Fit-Math-1328
#30
ATVs. I work at a Level 1 trauma hospital and I had no clue how many atv accidents there were till I started working here. I’ve seen so many kids come through here from rollovers and being thrown from them, whether they were using it themselves or riding with an adult. I’ve seen too many with broken bones up to and including permanent brain injuries. I’ve never used an atv and I’m sure there’s a safe way to ride them but I don’t think enough people take those things seriously. No one ever wakes up one day thinking they’ll be in the hospital later that night.
Image source: Aliasnode
#31
Driving. People are way too reckless and always in a rush to go nowhere.
Image source: IntenseViolet567
#32
Commercial trucks at highway speeds.
Image source: ThirdBrakeLight
#33
Cat claw scratches need to be washed out immediately with disinfectant, and if they’re an actual puncture that you can’t see the bottom of, go to urgent care.
Image source: m_sporkboy
#34
People do not take their computer or internet security seriously enough.
Image source: EstablishmentDue3616
#35
Live Theater/Events. Load ins and load outs have a lot of moving parts, you’re working 100+ feet under riggers who are hauling chains and motors to be attached to the grid/beams, not to mention the hazards the riggers face working at that height. Set carts can weigh thousands of pounds and have to be unloaded from trucks and brought onstage. If there’s automation incorporated into the scene changes things can go wrong with that (See Spiderman).
Counterweight systems have to be properly loaded to fly drops and set pieces in and out, and if they’re not you can have a runaway which might lead to thousands of pounds falling out of the air uncontrolled.
If it’s done right – like most things – then it’s mostly safe, but if my mom knew how dangerous theater can be she’d probably have a coronary.
Image source: igame2much
#36
Shoving people’s faces onto cakes. Some cakes have sharp sticks inside them to maintain structure.
Image source: Phobos_8072
#37
Drinking alcohol. More than 3/4 of the life-threatening or other injury calls I’ve taken were because of alcohol. Don’t even get me started on the disturbances or violence calls.
Image source: deckknee
#38
The flu or colds. They can mess up your body big time, speaking of organs actually failing and developping auto immune diseases even if you’re healthy, and people treat it like it’s no big deal.
Image source: Pixel-Bunny2435
#39
Working with Resin. Besides the fumes being toxic, any skin contact can be considered toxic.
Image source: Plane_Nobody_1463
#40
Cat scratches and bites. They can give you very serious infections, sometimes resulting in sepsis.
Image source: donitosforeveryone
#41
Seals. Cute little bouncing blobs, but people forget they are wild animals and can still bite, like that one tourist in Hawaii who tried to pet a baby monk seal and got attacked by its mother. They still have powerful jaws and sharp teeth and are basically an *aquatic bear*.
Image source: Heroic-Forger
#42
Religion, from extremists to just idiots thinking it’s all gods plan.
As a civilisation we no longer need religion we have the means to educate the people into a better understanding but we don’t, we waste our resources on such pathetic things.
Just think what the human race could achieve if we weren’t constantly squabbling over land and money.
Image source: Cynfreh
#43
Working out while or shortly after being ill. Someone in my school [passed away] of Myocarditis (heart complications triggered by working out after an infection). We used to have a sports teacher who insisted that “working out is always healthy” and gave out bad grades to students for skipping (doctor prescribed) sports class, before a students parent who was a doctor threatened to sue the school.
Image source: Something_crtve
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