Most of us have common sense and avoid dangerous things. Of course, there are adrenaline junkies who like motorcycles, bungee jumping, and rock climbing. But even then, our brain registers that what we're doing is dangerous. We prepare mentally and physically, so there’s no shock if something unfortunate does happen.
But what about the things we sometimes do but have no idea how dangerous they are? One person was wondering the exact same thing, so they decided to ask others: "What are some really dangerous things most people don't realize are dangerous?" If you're curious to know what everyday things you maybe should stop doing, scroll down and see for yourself!
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Once we start calling sunburn radiation burns, people will start taking it seriously.
The top answers in this thread bring awareness to some dangerous activities people should know about. Like driving with barely any sleep. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report in 2017, drowsy driving resulted in 91,000 crashes. 50,000 of those ended in injuries and nearly 800 even in deaths.
What's the way to prevent it? Get enough sleep! Adults need a minimum of 7 hours of sleep a day, while teenagers need 8. The CDC recommends sticking to a sleep schedule. And if you're prone to snoring or a sleep disorder, don't hesitate to talk to your doctor about it.
Moving water.
It can only take 6 inches of fast flowing water to knock you over, and double that can float a car.
Combining different cleaning products can lead to toxic gas in the room.
Combining cleaning products was also a popular answer. It might seem that the more products you put together, the better clean you'll get. However, some mixes can result in seriously toxic substances. Mixing bleach and vinegar or hydrogen peroxide and vinegar can result in the formation of toxic gasses. They can be harmful if inhaled and irritate the skin and eyes. You should also never mix bleach with ammonia – the gasses this produces can be lethal. Bleach, in general, should only be mixed with plain water.
Another group of products that can be harmful if mixed are drain cleaners. Maryann Amirshahi, PharmD, MD, MPH, PhD, FACMT, FACEP, FASAM, FCP, co-medical director of the National Capital Poison Center, told Martha Stewart that it’s because some contain acids and others contain bases. "Mixing acids and bases can cause a chemical reaction that generates heat, which can cause thermal burns. It may also release toxic gasses depending on the product involved."
Not sleeping. That s**t will ruin your mental state AND just ruin your overall functioning body.
I once was away for 3 days straight, it really messes you up. I nodded of in the middle of doing things. It was unreal. Don't do that.
Yeah I was up for two days and was emotional and physically wrecked.
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I took little red pills (likely uppers) and stayed awake for four days (M-F). A teacher showed me my essay test taken on Friday - read as if it were written by a psychotic
I had a long term addiction to Klonopin and Adderall. Started therapeutic but I chose to use more because I could write and record music as fast as it came. I don't remember 10 years. I would be awake wired for 3-4 days and sleep a day and a half. What a waste of time. So stupid and dangerous. My health is a wreck.
I used to be able to party 2-3 days and nights in a row. Now in my 60s, I suspect I was stealing sleep from my future and that's why I'm always tired today.
As a teen I spent the entire night up with one of my friends. I remember being so tired I cried when I got home, and I kept hallucinating. I didn’t even take any naps in the day.
24 hours makes impairment of legal intoxication. As an insomniac it can even cause a psychotic break. You see things, hear things, ect.
Lack of sleep causes my brain to go into a weird waking/sleeping state of mind. Similar to sleep walking. I've fallen "asleep" standing up (I didn't stay standing very long), walked into walls, mirrors (yes it broke and knocked me out). I've fallen and put my head and shoulder through a solid wood cabinet door. Cooked (burned) driven (that was scary bad!), online shop (wondering a week later who sent me a gift), I'll begin counting, rearranging and/or sorting things like Himalayan rock salt (by color and size) screws, nuts, bolts (measure the length, diameter and type of head) cabinets (remove everything from every cabinet) I won't go to bed and will turn into a 110lb. 2 year old fighting tooth and nail to not go to bed! I've been physically placed in bed, covers tightly tucked around me. Giving them the opportunity to stop me from getting up again! Eventually I fall asleep and other than using the bathroom will sleep uninterrupted from 2 to 4 days!
I suffer from moderate to severe insomnia and one night a few years back sleep was just not on the menu for me. I had started reading The Stand by Stephen King a day or so prior so I ended up reading a decent portion of it all thru that night... Y'all. It was akin to popping acid and watching a horror movie. (I think that's a good analogy. I've only ever tried acid once in my life so I'm not exactly an expert. I highly appreciate anyone of you either correcting or confirming 🖤🤘🏻)
Someone needs to explain this to Elongated Muskrat. He's lost his damn mind
Visiting the wrong doctor. The general public will never know what makes a good doctor and what makes a bad one. The standard of care you get from one hospital to the next can be life changing...
yep I always tell someone to get a second opinion if they get offered surgery.
A surprising entry for some in this list might be sunburns. Hardly anyone hasn't had a sunburn in their lives: it hurts, it peels, and it just isn't a pleasant experience generally. But it's not just that your skin got a little too hot from being in the sun too long. As the Skin Cancer Foundation explains, "Sunburn is an inflammatory reaction to ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage."
The skin peeling means that your body is trying to get rid of the damaged skin cells. But sometimes, it might just be too much – every sunburn raises your risk for skin cancer. The Skin Cancer Foundation claims that even one blistering sunburn in childhood more than doubles the chances of developing melanoma later in life. To avoid this, the best bets are covering up, staying in the shade, avoiding tanning beds, and investing in a good sunscreen.
Indoctrination into the ideologies of charismatic but severely mentally ill and criminally motivated people.
You know how the basic answer is "social media"?
Well, I'd like to up that.
A dangerous thing people get into so casually everyday is arguing with randoms.
It gets addictive, seeing notifs, seeing upvotes or "likes," and reposts.
Pretty soon, you start postponing work because you have to correct someone or you have to reply asap.
You lose sleep, you wake up frustrated, you randomly lash out on your loved ones, maybe even your pet.
You develop anger and attention problems.
When there is someone in your life who behaves in a sexually intimidating manner, or who can't stop from making sexual comments about you, tell someone! Decide who you can trust with this information and tell them *every time it happens.* Make notes about it, too, with dates and witnesses. MOST IMPORTANT: **Don't go anywhere with them alone!** That is when they will attempt to r*pe you. People like to think these sexual comments aren't dangerous, but they truly are. "Just ignore him," isn't good enough because they do this to get you to let your guard down. It's how they groom their victims so that you're so used to the vile comments that you stop regarding the person as potentially dangerous. "That's just how he is," is not an acceptable excuse for sexually denigrating somebody. Maybe the person is just a jerk, but you can't tell by how they look. R*pe victims say, "He suddenly became a very different, very aggressive person and then he attacked me. I never believed he would do anything like this!" Trust your own instincts! If someone makes you uncomfortable, pay attention and never, ever, go anywhere alone with them. Ever!
At the beach, riptide, if you don't spot them and don't know how to get out of one, it can be terrifying and deadly.
Quading or 4-wheeling. It's not uncommon in my area for some feller and his friends to take these vehicles through some forest or some s**t, only to end up overturning them and causing one of them to have a brain injury so bad the docs have to ask the family their thoughts on organ donation.
Posting everything on social media and giving away all your information.
Even family who have known me all my life would have great trouble guessing my passwords.
Garage door springs.
I worked with a fellow who had his face torn off whilst trying to adjust a garage door - call a professional guys!
Driving. Youre literally flying down the road at speeds that would kill you if you got hit in a gigantic hunk of gasoline filled metal.
People dont take safety on the road nearly seriously enough.
This is why signaling is so important. These "gigantic hunks of gasoline filled metal" basically have two ways to communicate, break lights and signals.
Escalators. The torque produced to lift dozens of people and their luggage will not stop for your limbs. Watch your kids, carry your pets, don't be distracted. There are emergency stop buttons at the top and bottom, if you see a problem such as a person falling or loose metal or glass, use the button. Better delayed than traumatized, maimed, or dead.
Places that don't have those emergency buttons have pretty regular deaths. Safety regulations may seem annoying, but they save lives
Not using protection when having sex.
I don't know why this isn't higher. STIs are a very real issue.
Cheaping out on tires for your vehicle.
Definitely alcohol.
Nurse here-most people don't realize the damage even 2 drinks a day does to your mind/body. I've seen so many patients in their early 40s with liver disease. It can be a silent killer and many don't realize how bad it is until it's pretty far gone.
Alcohol is one of the few d***s from which it is possible to die in withdrawl.
- Being in a relationship with a narcissist
- Being in a relationship where you're constantly being gaslighted
These make even the strongest and most confident people develop self esteem issues and doubt everything they say or do.
Falling/knocking people over. hit your head at just the right angle and spot and boom dead.
Ladders.
Always have someone foot a ladder at the very least, or better still, have it tied off/secured.
Riding Electric scooters. I see people zipping around my city everyday easily pushing 25-30mph with no helmet, no pads, no gloves, wearing flipflops or slipon nothing shoes. People apparently don't realize how badly knees, elbows, hands, feet, and heads get f****d up hitting pavement going that fast.
And the injuries aren't being properly reported in the UK because personal scooters aren't legal on the road.
Dull kitchen knives.
I know everyone says dull knives are more dangerous but I've only ever cut myself with sharp knives. I know its anecdotal, but that's just my experience!
There’s a newish trend among wood workers called Fractal Burning or Lichtenberg burning where you use electricity to create this cool lightning like burns across wood. Problem is, it’s extremely dangerous. There has already been at least one person who died trying to do it (probably more but I only remember hearing of one specifically) . There’s a ton of videos of every day people doing this, but if you slip up just slightly, you’re gonna electrocute yourself.
This is so dangerous. My niece had been doing this for several years before she got a little too careless. Thankfully she survived, but she lost 3 fingers and part of her hand where the electricity exited her body and she has severe nerve damage.
People not knowing that “inflammable” means “really extremely f*****g flammable” and not “not flammable”.
"Inflammable" and "flammable" mean the same thing. WTH english language??? 😒
The sun. Like some people are so worried about vaccines them will sit in the sun for hours without sunscreen. Even though it does cause cancer.
Mountains, specifically going hiking in the mountains.
I recently climbed Snowdon (in Wales) and there were hundreds of people up there who were clearly inexperienced. People don't realise how quickly a fun hike can turn into someone's death.
Yes, people really underestimate how dangerous it can get on mountains even in the UK. We were climbing Ben Nevis and saw someone wearing flip flops, shorts and carrying an umbrella. Fortunately he was on the way down but he was lucky. The weather can change in a second and conditions at the bottom can be completely different to those at the top.
Antifreeze. It's way more poisonous than you probably think it is, and it has a sweet taste that attracts cats and children. If your cat laps up a teaspoonful, they're pretty much already dead.
Unsecured cutting boards. Put a dish cloth under it or something. Make sure it doesn’t slip
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
This started out OK but got real weird toward the end, like there weren't enough entries for the list so someone just threw in an extra handful of questionable ones to round out the list.
Deer, just your normal whitetail deer. They'll come out of nowhere at night, causing you to either swerve and lose control or hit it and wreck your car. During rut season the bucks can get hyper-aggressive and territorial. Those horns aren't just for show.
I think there should be a limit of 25 to 30 entries per list to keep the content of good quality.
Pretty sure that's why the articles start out with something like 70 items but get pruned to the top 30 most times. Just read them a week after they're posted, they'll be pruned by that point.
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Kangaroos, Wallabies and Wombats can and will kill you if you make them mad. A Koala probably could if it could focus on doing so for long enough, but their smooth brains and general idiocy makes it unlikely.
Except that, sadly, common sense, like common courtesy and common decency, is endangered and fast becoming extinct.
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Crossing a street in Memphis TN. I live close to a Walgreens. It's a five minute walk, ten tops. I feel like a douchebag driving my car there but crossing the street to get to it is far too perilous. If anyone of you good people also live here, y'all know exactly what I'm talking about here lol
As someone who really loves motorcycles, I'm hurt that they weren't on here
Thanks for letting me know that my dear of heights and deep water is rational (edit: and things like kelp & the ocean)
This started out OK but got real weird toward the end, like there weren't enough entries for the list so someone just threw in an extra handful of questionable ones to round out the list.
Deer, just your normal whitetail deer. They'll come out of nowhere at night, causing you to either swerve and lose control or hit it and wreck your car. During rut season the bucks can get hyper-aggressive and territorial. Those horns aren't just for show.
I think there should be a limit of 25 to 30 entries per list to keep the content of good quality.
Pretty sure that's why the articles start out with something like 70 items but get pruned to the top 30 most times. Just read them a week after they're posted, they'll be pruned by that point.
Load More Replies... Kangaroos, Wallabies and Wombats can and will kill you if you make them mad. A Koala probably could if it could focus on doing so for long enough, but their smooth brains and general idiocy makes it unlikely.
Except that, sadly, common sense, like common courtesy and common decency, is endangered and fast becoming extinct.
Load More Replies... Crossing a street in Memphis TN. I live close to a Walgreens. It's a five minute walk, ten tops. I feel like a douchebag driving my car there but crossing the street to get to it is far too perilous. If anyone of you good people also live here, y'all know exactly what I'm talking about here lol
As someone who really loves motorcycles, I'm hurt that they weren't on here
Thanks for letting me know that my dear of heights and deep water is rational (edit: and things like kelp & the ocean)
