December 29, 2009--Get A Grip

Since Christmas morning the news media have been covering the failed bombing of the Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detriot 24/7.

This is not to say this is an unimportant story. In fact, it has exposed flaws in the international airport security system that need immediate attention and correction.

We need to look again at how we manage the so-called no-fly list. The bomber minimally should have been flagged for a careful body search at the airport after his father notified the American Embassy in Nigeria that he might be a security risk. Anyone thus identified by a parent and who buys a one-way ticket for cash should immediately jump to the top of any list of potential terrorists.

We need to install better electronic devices at airport security gates. These exist but have been installed at a tiny percentage of airports worldwide, including in the U.S. where only 40 body-scanning have been installed at the thousands of existing TSA gates. There are privacy issues that need addressing, but these should not be allowed to stand in the way of ramping up what needs to be done to better protect travelers.

Having said this, it is still important to put this awful incident in perspective. What are the actual comparative dangers from many of the most common things that can befall us? And what should we do about each of them?

Each year on average 120 people are killed in airplane accidents. This includes private plane crashes as well as those killed via acts of terrorism. A terrible number to be sure but not that many more than are killed in the United States by lightning. Ninety are killed this way each year.

Murders take 15,500 lives a year. The flu, 20,000. More than 160,000 men and women a year die of lung cancer. Hospital-bourn infections, kill at least 100,000.

And another 40,000 lives are lost each year on the nation's highways. That's the equivalent of every year blowing up 20 planes each carrying 200 passengers.

There is little we can do about deaths caused by lightning, but we can easily reduce the number killed by the flu (make sure everyone gets flu shots, make sure all children have access to healthcare), lung cancer (get serious about eliminating cigarette smoking), hospital staph infections (require all medical personnel to wash up and wear gloves before treating a patient), and auto accidents (among other things make using a cell phone while driving illegal).

In regard to the latter, while doing lots of driving while in winter residence in Florida, we have noticed that erratic and dangerous drivers almost always are busy on their cell phones. The New York Times reports that drivers are four times more likely to have an accident if they are on the phone or texting. And that at least 2,600 highway deaths a year are caused by drivers distracted in this way. (Article linked below.)

Considering that tens of thousands of deaths in the U.S. are caused by our own behavior, as opposed to acts of God, why don't we see at least as much attention paid to these preventable tragedies as we see devoted to a failed terrorist act that killed no one?

Again, that needs to be reported and we are entitled to know that governments are doing a much better job of screening potential terrorists; but if we truly care about saving lives, in addition to scaring the daylights out of us to garner TV ratings or for cynical politicians to make cheap points, we could turn much more attention to those things that are killing so many of us and that can be prevented.