Comparison of the 9/11/01 Tragedy to the Frequency of Death from Other Causes

BUMC PROCEEDINGS 2003;16:131–140 COMPARISON OF THE 9/11/01 TRAGEDY TO THE FREQUENCY OF DEATH FROM OTHER CAUSES The November/December 2002 issue of World-Watch compared the September 11 tragedy with the magnitude of other deaths (1). In the USA, the numbers of persons dying or killed each year on average are as follows: by cigarette smoking, 431,000; by obesity, 300,000; by alcohol abuse, 110,000; by motor vehicle accidents, 43,000; by guns, other than war, 34,000; by adverse reactions to prescription drugs, 32,000; by suicide, 31,000; by accidental falls, 15,000; by accidental poisoning, 9000; by aspirin and nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), 8000; by drowning, 4000; by choking on ingested objects, 3000; and by the September 11 attacks in 2001, 3000. In other countries, the numbers of people dying or killed each year on average are as follows: by ongoing civil war in Sudan, 2,000,000; by the Khmer Rouge massacre in 1975 to 1978 in Cambodia, 1,700,000; by the ongoing war in Congo, 1,700,000; by US secret bombings in 1970 to 1973 in Cambodia, 150,000; by pesticide suicides of despairing farmers in China, 125,000; by 2 atomic bombs dropped by US planes in 1945 in Japan, 103,000; by obesity in the United Kingdom, 30,000; by the Bhopal chemical spill in 1985 and its aftermath in India, 20,000; by venomous snakes in India, 10,000; by malaria in Brazil, 8000; and by Serbian army massacres of Bosnian Muslim prisoners, 7000.