5.Summer's Heat Will Kill You Before Lightning
5.被热死的概率远高于触电而死
Not only does it simply get hot in summer, but it's also the time of year where one might have the greatest fear of encountering temperatures hotter than the surface of the Sun. Lightning can reach temperatures of 30,000 degrees Celsius (50,000 °F), causing severe burns, as well as killing an average of 51 people each year in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, most lightning strike victims are not struck directly but instead succumb to simply being near another object that is struck. This is why it always best to move indoors during a thunderstorm, as lying flat in a field will do nothing to save you from indirect strikes.
夏天的高温常常令人心生畏惧，但比起高温，更可怕的一定是夏季雷雨时的闪电。闪电发生时温度可达到30000摄氏度（50000华氏摄氏度），其高温足以使事物剧烈燃烧，美国境内每年平均将近51人丧生于雷电之下。事实上，雷击致人死亡的原因与大家的认知刚好相反。大多数的闪电并没有直接击中受害者，而是人们接触了受到雷击的物体后才触电。所以在雷雨天气中，避免受到雷击最佳的做法就是待在室内，因为即使平躺在一个空旷的平地中，我们照样会受到雷电的非直接雷击。
While you're running inside, you might want to check your air conditioner, as you're over 10 times more likely to die from excessive heat exposure, which generally kills 618 people each year in the US. Dying by heat is a surprisingly nasty way to go. As your temperature rises, in addition to sweating, your body tries to cool down by pumping more blood closer to the skin to radiate heat. If you can't cool down, more and more blood is pumped away from your internal organs. The lack of oxygen from blood strains the organs, while the continuing heat buildup causes an inflammatory response across the whole body, making it even harder to cool down. Once your temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 °F), your brain will get less blood due to increased intracranial pressure, and damaged tissue in the blood may cause your kidneys to fail. If your body makes it to 49 degrees Celsius (120 °F), and you're not already dead, your cells will suffer direct heat damage.
当在室内跑步时，我们会去打开空调来凉快一下，因为你丧命于高温的机会很可能增加了10倍，据统计，每一年美国大约有618人因热致死。热死无疑是世上最糟糕的死法。随着身体温度的逐渐升高，身体除了会自行排汗降温，皮肤下的血液速度还会不停地加速来帮助身体进行散热。如果身体温度持续不下，体内器官中大量的血就会被抽走。缺乏氧气的血液有损于身体器官，而身体持续的升温会导致体内产生炎症从而使人体更难降温。人体温度一旦达到40摄氏度（104华氏摄氏度），脑部供血量减少。颅内血压升高，这样血液里带有的坏死组织会对肾脏造成巨大的伤害。如果人体温度达到49摄氏度（120华氏摄氏度），体内所有的细胞就会被高温杀死，人们会就此丧命。
4.Worry More About Wind Chill Than Tornadoes
4.风寒比龙卷风更危险
Hypothermia is an arguably sneakier killer than heat. Mild hypothermia may only manifest as the usual attributes of “being cold,” such as shivering, fingers feeling numb, and so on. If shivering isn't enough to warm the body back up, it will do the opposite of the heat response described above and divert blood away from the extremities and into the internal organs.
较之于高温发热，低温症更像是个“无形杀手”。轻度低温症患者可能只会出现“发冷”的症状，例如身体打颤、手指发麻等等。但如果发抖不足以使身体暖和起来，那么它就会使血液改流，绕过四肢，流入内脏。
Violent shivering will begin once the body's temperature drops to 35 degrees Celsius (95 °F) but cease below 32 degrees Celsius (90 °F). At this point, the sufferer will be unable to think clearly and may even irrationally remove clothing. Unconsciousness comes at 30 degrees Celsius (86 °F). At this point, a hypothermia victim may appear dead, as their body has slowed its metabolism to reduce oxygen requirements. Heart rate and respiration are quite slow. The heart finally will stop at 20 degrees Celsius (65 °F), though arrhythmias may cause death as soon as 28 degrees Celsius (82 °F).Exposure to excessive cold kills roughly 1,300 people per year in the US. It would have to be a truly terrible and record-shattering weather year for tornadoes to match that. They kill 75 US residents each year on average. That chill you may feel in your fingers as you clear snow off your car this winter is a much more pressing danger than those thunderheads you may see in the distance this summer.
当体温降到35摄氏度（95华氏度）时，患者会开始剧烈颤抖，但一旦低于32摄氏度（90华氏度），则会停止。这时候，患者会变得意识模糊，无法清晰地思考问题。有些人甚至会任性地脱去衣物。当体温降到30摄氏度（86华氏度）时，患者会开始丧失意识。此时此刻，他们会呈现出一种濒死的状态。因为患者的身体会主动减缓新陈代谢以减少自身对氧气的需求量，其心率和呼吸也会变得十分微弱。而当体温降到20摄氏度（65华氏度）时，心脏最终会停止跳动。其实当体温降到28摄氏度（82华氏度）时，心率失常就已经很有可能会夺走患者的性命。粗略来算，美国平均每年有1300人死于挨冷受冻。其杀伤力之强，大概也只有那破天荒的龙卷风气象年可以与之相“媲美”了。因为一般来说，美国平均每年死于龙卷风的公民约75人。在冬天，当你用手扫除车上的积雪时，你的手指也许会感受到那种寒冷——风寒的寒冷，这远远比你在夏天时看到的远处隐约的雷雨云砧要危险得多。
3.Food Poisons More People Than Carbon Monoxide
3.食物中毒比一氧化碳中毒更危险
Carbon monoxide (CO) is an even stealthier winter killer than hypothermia. You can't see it, taste it, or smell it, and it won't even make you sneeze or cough. Cars produce it every day, and your furnace might make the next cold winter night your last. After being inhaled, CO kills when it enters the bloodstream. It bonds to the hemoglobin in blood, which normally bonds with oxygen and carries it throughout the body. Carbon monoxide makes blood useless. Every year, 430 people die in the US of CO poisoning.
一氧化碳是比低温症更甚的“冬日无形杀手”。它看不见，尝不出，闻不到，甚至也不会引发你的喷嚏和咳嗽。汽车每天会散发大量的一氧化碳，而你正在使用的火炉也许会让你见不到下个冬天的太阳。一氧化碳进入人们血流后，它的“杀戮”就开始了。血液中的血红蛋白一般与氧气结合，为人体全身供氧。一氧化碳极易与血液中的血红蛋白结合，使血红蛋白无法与氧气结合，于是造成人类缺氧，由此，人体中的血液变得毫无用处。在美国，平均每年有430人死于一氧化碳中毒。
Don't run away from your gas stove just yet; you need it to make sure your food is properly cooked. Foodborne diseases kill 3,000 US residents per year. A plurality of food poisoning cases are caused by poultry, although fruits, nuts, and leafy greens cause many cases as well. Several deaths might be prevented by simple measures such as proper hand-washing and cooking food to the correct temperature.
听到这儿，不要急着从你的煤气炉前跑走，你还要用它确保你的食物是不是煮熟了呢！几乎每年都会有3000名美国公民死于食物传染疾病。大多数食物中毒案例是由家禽引起的，但是其他种类诸如水果，坚果和绿叶蔬菜也都位列诱因榜单。其实只需实施一些简单的措施就可以避免许许多多的死亡事件，比如勤洗手,比如将食物煮熟。
2.Your Doctor's Bad Handwriting Will Kill You Long Before Ebola
2.医生的糟糕书写会在你感染埃博拉病毒前杀死你
Ebola is a terrifying disease. The pathogen attacks nearly every organ and system in the human body, sparing only bones and muscles. Connective tissue such as collagen is effectively dissolved. Without that foundation, the skin floats over liquefied tissue, and the sufferer will bleed spontaneously from various orifices. This only gets worse once bloody vomiting and diarrhea commence. Blood loss ultimately kills an Ebola victim.
埃博拉病毒是一种可怕的疾病。它“生性残暴”，会对人体中每个器官以及各个身体系统展开攻击，直到人们只剩下骨头和肌肉才肯罢休。同样恐怖的是，它会使胶原蛋白这类结缔组织溶解。假如缺乏了胶原蛋白，人的皮肤会浮在液化组织上，患者会因此失血。带血呕吐或者腹泻，是患者病情恶化的信号。失血最终会成为压死埃博拉病毒受害者的最后一根稻草。
Fear of the disease led airports in the US and other countries to screen incoming passengers from West Africa. Despite this, health care workers in the US contracted Ebola, sparking fears of an outbreak. Four people were diagnosed with Ebola in 2014; one died, while the others recovered and were released from treatment. The one person who died caught the virus in Liberia.Patients at the Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas, the site of three of the four Ebola cases, faced a much greater risk even during the stays of the Ebola patients: their doctors' bad handwriting. A doctor's frequently illegible notes or prescriptions may seem like joke fodder, but it leads to an average of 7,000 deaths every year in the US. Consider that 3.2 billion prescriptions are written annually. Bad writing can easily lead to the wrong dosage, and an unclear abbreviation might lead to the wrong medication being dispensed.
因该疾病杀伤力太强，各国机场会对南非入境乘客的身体状况进行严谨的检测，试图以此控制病毒在本国的传播。尽管如此，依然有医护人员在美国感染埃博拉病毒。2014年，四人被确诊为埃博拉病毒。最终一人死亡，其他3人幸运康复出院。据了解，这位不幸死亡的患者是在利比里亚感染了病毒。位于德克萨斯州达拉斯的德克萨斯长老会医院中住着众多埃博拉病毒感染者，这里的病人面临着比埃博拉病毒更加危险的挑战——医生的潦草处方。医生的潦草字迹，会导致美国每年平均7000人死亡的恶果。这是因为，医生每年要开出32亿份药单，写的不好容易导致错误的剂量，不明确的缩写也可能导致药物分配错误，这些都会无情夺走病人的生命。
1.Binge Drinking Kills More People Than All Other Drugs Combined
1.酗酒是最猖狂的杀手
Sending a child off to college can certainly be stressful for concerned parents. They've kept their kids away from cows, bundled them up in the winter, cooked food just right, and made their pediatricians print every prescription. Now the time has come for the kid to leave the nest, get a degree, and ultimately land a good job. Of course, there's always the frightening possibility that he or she will get hooked on drugs while they're away. A bigger concern might be how much the kid has to drink.
儿行千里母担忧，送孩子离家外出读大学，父母的心也不能放松。从小，为了保证孩子的健康，父母算是操碎了心。他们让孩子远离母牛，注意孩子在冬日的保暖，将食物煮得恰到好处，甚至让儿科医生打印每一张处方。可是，总有些危险的诱惑在花花世界的某处等待着才离家的孩子，比如，毒品。
Roughly 80,000 Americans die each year from binge drinking. Most of these deaths may not be from direct alcohol poisoning, but car crashes and drunken violence can be just as deadly.Only about half as many people die from drug overdoses in the US each year: for example, 41,000 in 2011 and 44,000 in 2013. These figures include overdoses on legal prescription drugs; illegal drugs constitute less than half of overdose deaths. In other words, parents should worry more about frat parties than a marijuana-smoking college roommate.
据统计，每年约有8万美国人死于酗酒。酗酒者多数不是直接死于酒精中毒，车祸和酒后暴力才是罪魁祸首。相比之下，死于药物过量的人则少了接近一半：例如2011年有41000人，2013年有44000人。这些数字包括法定处方药过量；非法毒品的死亡算是比药物过量的一半人还要少。换句话说，比起担心孩子读书期间交往了吸毒的朋友，还不如担心朋友在聚会时有没有喝醉。
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