Are we scaring ourselves to death? ABC news special with John Stossel approx. 44 minutes (commercials have been removed) Discussion questions are also available at http://www.calvin.edu/~rpruim/materials/videos/stossel.shtml 00:40 What do you fear? (crime, cancer, radiation, asbestos, terrorism) 00:50 we've told ... that there's danger everywhere and it's all getting worse 01:00 it just isn't true .. crime isn't exploding, new technology is not shorting our lices 01:10 there are real risks to worry about by we, for the most part, are worrying about the wrong ones 01:25 crime 02:25 dole: since 1960 the rate of violent crime has increase by more than 500%. we've got a graph... 02:40 two sources of crime reports FBI reported crimes and justice department interviews 03:20 justice dept numbers show crime decreasing since 1973 03:25 graph showing violent crime and total crime total crime down 25%, violent crime down 2% 03:40 mark warr "crime has been essentially flat for a decade" 03:50 "if you want to scare people with figures about crime, it is easy to do" 04:10 FBI numbers show increases in reporting several reasons given: more willingness, better technology (makes reporting easier/safer, advantages for police to increase reported crime (to get more $$) 04:45 second way we in the media try to scare you ... we often leave something out [namely increased population] 05:35 voices saying crime is down are not heard (meet the press) 06:00 hear about so much more crime 07:10 loss of freedom results from too much fear 07:20 gated communities 09:00 interviews with older people don't believe crime is down, live scared and hiding 09:45 statistics don't prove crime against elderly is up 10:20 keeps youth and elderly from mixing 10:30 young people 16 times more likely to be crime victims than elderly 10:35 "it is reasonable to be afraid of being murdered, for example, if you are a young black male in our society because your lifetime probability of being murdered is something on the order of 1 in 30." (Mark Warr) 10:45 yearly probability of being victim of some violent crime (for young blacks) is 1 in 6. 1 in 370 for elderly white women 11:00 phenomenon of familiarity 11:35 "just getting out there reduces the fear of crime." 11:50 "most homocides are committed by people we know" (Mark Warr) 12:10 saddest victims of fear = children 12:20 kidnappers rarely kidnap children 13:00 "should we all worry all the time...it tears the social fabric apart if we assume that everyone we run into is a criminal" (Mark Warr) 13:30 "most of us who are fearful live in places where crime has been decreasing" ======== segment break 13:40 ========== 13:55 "we can't fear everything can we" 14:00 asbestos in new york we can't accept that ... experts can be wrong "is any risk OK?" "no, absolutely none" 15:55 Dr. Levins: asbestos clean-up made things worse (exposed to worse risks) 16:30 Love canal near Niagra Falls 70's environment concerns Stossel contributed but later began "wondering about perspective" 17:30 lack of evidence of increased cancer near love canal, etc doesn't get much attention. "media has moved on to other dubious risks." 18:50 Ralph Nader gives long list of "bad things" 19:05 "You may life sound terrifying." "Life is perparedness.." (R. Nader) 19:10 "I don't want to be that prepared" 19:25 project revealed: rank risks and find out what really kills people 19:35 "Despite all the publicity about new risks like celular phones, and drug tampering, far more people are killed by ordinary things" stairs 1000 Americans per year bikes 700 Americans per year tylenol 7 people leads to big scare 1 billion dollars spent sealing drugs 50 children killed by buckets 20:20 "It doesn't make news because buckets aren't new. Familiarity lessens fear." 20:45 method of measuring risk explained. how many exected days lost. 21:00 media spend too much time on wrong risks plane crashes: 1 day hazardous waste: 4 days house fires: 18 days pesticides: 27 days (based on one survey, some say no death) air polution: 61 days crime: 113 days cars: 182 days 22:45 which risks should we go after? John Graham (Harvard school of Public Health): "there are a lot of risks we ought to go after. The problem is, as a country we're having our attention diverted to relatively small risks." 23:15 headline hysteria "what is news is not necessarily the biggest public health problem. The mysterious, the bazaar, the speculative, make good news, but the day to day problems .... that is the kind of problem that we need to get attention to because the media doesn't have a hook to sell it." (Graham) smoke detectors, better crash protectors on highways, painting lines, boring remedies for ordinary problems ... would save far more lives 24:20 "Just because scientists can now find microscopic quantities of poison doesn't mean that those tiny doses hurt people." 24:30 cancer: going up or down? 25:30 to get zero riskA 26:00 seat belts on busses (R. Nader $1800/bus is worth it) 26:25 "You're engaging in statistical murder. When you spend $50 million to save a few lives when you could spend the $50 million to save a hundreds lives or a thousand lives, that's statistical murder." (J. Graham) 26:45 Nader says we should worry about everything [not entirely accurate summar by Stossel] 27:15 some regulations may actually kill more than they save airline child seats 28:15 Bill Rilely, former EPA director, now thinks EPA spend money on wrong stuff problem with democracy -- legislation meets fleeting public concern 29:15 bureaucracy will spend money to protect us, even if we don't want it ======== segment break 29:40 ========== 29:50 do waste money making things too clean? super fund sites 30:15 aspen (polution from silver mining -- lead) 31:10 lead in soil -> bad for people? 32:50 Dr. can't find any evidence of lead poisoning should protect people from skiing "people willing to accept risks the EPA is unwilling to accept" comfortable with risk 34:40 residents persuade gov to test blood 37:10 the road kills, not the lead 1000 serious injuries and 21 deaths over 5 years ======== segment break 37:45 ========== 37:45 Stossel aslo has reported on really minor risks (eg, coffee makers) 38:15 smoking: 5.5 years computed differently 38:40 does having lots of regulations kill people? 38:50 poverty: 7 to 10 years ======== segment break 40:30 ========== 40:35 what is safe? hypothetical products natural gas kills 400 Americans a year pools kill 600 Americans, gives children brain damage would anything be approved now? 43:40 life expectancy increased by 30 years this century technology given the credit 44:10 end of video