Questions tagged [safety]
The balance of benefit versus harm of an activity, device, technology or substance.
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Are personal electronics a risk to commercial aviation?
Are personal electronics (of present or recent past; e.g. cell phones, mp3 players, iPads) a risk to commercial air travel? Is the typical request to "turn off all personal electronic devices" based ...
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Does home-WiFi expose you to less radiation than using the 3G on your cell-phone?
Are there any studies that compare WiFi and cellular data usage, in the home, over time?
Mainly I've heard that WiFi uses more battery (so it should emit more radiation) but OTOH it feels like 3G/...
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Are there fewer accidental deaths at nuclear power plants than others?
I have seen the stats on this website saying that the number of death caused by nuclear accidents was way smaller then those caused by any other energy production factory. Do you have any information, ...
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Do cars pass with less space for bicyclists who wear helmets?
This question is an off-shoot of from the discussion about helmet safety. There is an assertion that when a car passes a bicycle, it allows less space to those who wear a helmet than those without. ...
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Does the establishment of a legal upper speed limit on highways lead to a reduction in traffic deaths and accidents?
The conventional wisdom is that established speed limits lead to an increase in safety.
Speed limits are usually set to attempt to cap road traffic speed; there are several reasons for wanting to do ...
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Does marijuana impair driving?
Is the use of cannabis/marijuana/THC associated with risks when driving a motor vehicle, similar to impairment from the use of alcohol?
The conclusions of public studies seem inconsistent. For example,...
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Do green grapes cause more accidents on the London Underground than banana peels?
In Teary Deary's Horrible Histories: London, he claims that green grapes cause more accidents on the London Underground (I presume subway) than banana peels.
This claim is also repeated in several ...
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Do open windows increase the chance of lightning striking the house?
There's a widespread belief among most of the people I know that all windows should be closed during a storm as having them open is supposed to attract lightning (or, according to some people, can ...
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Are there any toxic or dangerous food pairings?
Are there any foods that are harmless when eaten alone yet are dangerous or toxic when eaten together with another otherwise innocuous food?
There can obviously be problems if you combine acidic ...
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Will increased speed limits on motorways (or highways) cause significant harm?
The UK government has recently started a consultation on increasing the speed limits on motorways (roughly the equivalent of highways in the USA) in England.
So it seems appropriate to pose the ...
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Does "dirty electricity" cause cancer?
Research by Magda Havas, Ph.D., of Trent University in Canada, and U.S. epidemiologist Samuel Milham, M.D., links something called “dirty electricity” with diabetes, malignant melanoma, and cancers of ...
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Are dioxins the most toxic chemicals known to science?
Dioxins are implicated in The Seveso disaster in Italy and the lingering disputes about deformities and birth defects caused by the use of the Agent Orange defoliant in the Vietnam war (Wikipedia ...
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Were children safer in the good old days?
Edited, as every site I found in my search last night gave me sites that all say the same thing:
The perception is that the world is a really dangerous place for children these days
But the ...
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Does wearing a bicycle helmet make the cyclist safer?
Does wearing a helmet while bicycling make an individual cyclist safer?
That is, in the case of an accident, is one safer wearing an helmet? If yes, are the odds of an accident lower, higher or ...
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Is drinking raw milk more dangerous than drinking pasteurized milk?
In Australia "raw milk", more commonly known as un-pasteurised milk, is mostly illegal for human consumption, except in one state, I do believe. The consensus appears to be that pasteurising the milk ...
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Is aluminum foil safe to use with food?
Prompted by comments in the family, help me clear this up. A Google search for is aluminum foil safe yields articles that claim it's dangerous, as well as articles that claim it's safe. So which one ...
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Has president Trump been "very strict on Commercial Aviation"?
President Trump seems to be implying that him being strict on commercial aviation led to 2017 having been "the best and safest year on record". When reading carefully, he does not claim that ...
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Ammonia content of beef in USA
Is it true that 70% of ground beef found in the United States when sold is 30% by-weight ammonia (which is not on the label), and that the beef used is essentially only usable for pet food except for ...
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Is lean finely textured beef (LFTB) or "pink slime" safe to eat?
Currently in the United States ground beef can be sold under the label "100% ground beef" as per the the USDA Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book (August 2005); however, there have been a number ...
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Would lowering the speed limit in NYC by 5mph lower the number of pedestrian deaths by a factor of 2?
According to the Mayor of New York City, De Blasio: (my emphasis)
Excessive speed contributes to 25 percent of roadway fatalities on New York City Streets and is the leading cause of motor vehicle ...
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Is the self-driving car technology of 2017 less lethal than human drivers?
Youtube channel veritasium, on a video called "The real moral dilemma of self-driving cars" (ref) claims that if all cars in 2017 were self-driving, hundreds of lives could be saved.
So he is claming ...
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Do Bluetooth headsets pose any health risks?
What's the current state of knowledge concerning health risks caused by Bluetooth headsets?
What has been confirmed so far?
I lack the expertise to evaluate which reports are trustworthy and which ...
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Are rear-end collisions more dangerous in Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) than Petrol cars?
Is it more dangerous to be in a passenger car with compressed natural gas than with a petrol fuel tank when it comes to rear-end collisions?
Lawrence Godwin, on eZine claims there is a explosion risk ...
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Does Honda Civic CNG fare well in crash safety tests as claimed by its manufacturer?
Honda touts great safety for their Civic CNG, but I have second thoughts concerning their fuel tank's safety in rear-end collisions.
I looked for some tests and data, but could not find anything ...
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Has 2017 been the safest year in commercial aviation?
President Trump seems to be implying that him being strict on commercial aviation led to 2017 having been "the best and safest year on record". When reading carefully, he does not claim that ...
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Are schools with armed guards or police safer?
The Huffington Post recently ran a story featuring Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA saying that,
"Putting police and armed security guards in our schools to protect our children ... it's the ...
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