"Pete C." wrote:


Douglas Johnson wrote:

But that's not my point. If you are going to spend money reducing your risk of
death, you should spend on the high risks, not the low ones. The risk of death
from heart attacks is about 5000 times that of tornadoes.

The problem is you are comparing the proverbial apples and oranges.
Heart attacks are a risk for the entire country, while tornadoes, while
technically possible anywhere, are primarily a risk in tornado alley.
Find the population of tornado alley and adjust your heart attack
numbers to that population and then you might have a valid comparison.

Well, there are clusters for other risks, too. I agree tornado risks are higher
in "tornado alley". But if as little as 10% of the population lives in tornado
alley and all the tornados are in tornado alley, then heart attacks are still
500 times more likely than tornados.

Here http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nv...sr53_05acc.pdf is the National
Vital Statistics Report on Deaths in 2002. It includes numbers of deaths caused
by everything from malignant neoplasms (557,271) to accidental discharge of a
firearm (762). Tornados do not even make the list.

-- Doug