Risk landing on life, body, injury, illness, disability and chronic conditions.
The largest prospective study of back belts found 17.1% back pain among daily wearers and 17.5% among those who never wore one. What the evidence supports instead is changing the task.
Virtually all crowd deaths are compressive asphyxia, not trampling, and the word stampede points the blame in the wrong direction. The density ladder, the forces involved, what the Itaewon and Karur investigations found, and the one threshold worth acting on: when you are touched on all four sides, leave.
A randomised trial found that using a regular adult cuff on someone who needs an extra-large one overestimates systolic pressure by about 20 mmHg – enough to turn 125/79 into 144/87 on the same arm. What the WHO numbers say about the 600 million who do not know, what SPRINT actually showed, and how to get a reading worth acting on.
Children cannot reliably detect a vehicle approaching above 20 mph – a developmental limit, not carelessness. What that means for the school run, the 44% injury reduction Safe Routes to School produced in New York, and why nearly two thirds of school-bus-related child deaths happen outside the bus.
More than three quarters of US pedestrian deaths happen after dark, and fatal night crashes rose 84% in thirteen years. What the IIHS found about tall, flat vehicle fronts, why night-time autobrake still struggles, and the vision research showing the same reflective material works two to five times better on your ankles than on your chest.
Hair cells do not grow back, and the safe exposure time halves with every three decibels. At 100 dBA – earbuds near maximum – the daily allowance is fifteen minutes; venues average 104 to 112 dB. The exposure table, the evidence on temporary threshold shift, and the protection actually worth buying.
A magnitude 5.9 near Tokyo in August 2026 injured 37 people and knocked down no buildings — almost all of them hurt by furniture, doors and falls. In Northridge, deaths came from collapse but hospitalisations came from falling objects. Here is what the injury data says about securing a room, why the “Triangle of Life” is wrong, and the eight fixes that matter — four of which are free.
Between 20 and 25% of epinephrine administrations in schools are to children with no known allergy — a first reaction, with no care plan. And the delay that turns a frightening afternoon into a fatal one is usually an antihistamine reached for first.
In 2024 the WHO dropped the droplet-versus-airborne distinction that underpinned decades of advice. Exhaled particles behave like smoke, not falling cannonballs — which moves ventilation to the top of the list and surface cleaning near the bottom.
The 2024 Lancet Commission put 45% of dementia cases down to 14 modifiable risk factors. Two were added that year — midlife cholesterol and untreated vision loss. Almost none of the list is something you buy, and no supplement appears on it at all.
