Researchers at Duke University Medical Center and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health found that nail gun injuries increased threefold in the past 15 years, with 13,400 nail-gun users seeking hospital treatment in 2005, compared with 4,200 in 1991.
So what's the problem? All these guys underwent mental and criminal background checks first, right?
No?
Hmmm...
Besides, why does anyone who's not a licensed contractor need such a dangerous tool...?
Rarely does any real world example yield useful information when compared only with itself. Journalists should be required to take a mandated safety course and get a permit to use unqualified statistics.
ReplyDeleteI could also say that there was a sharp increase in people visiting smut sites on the Internet over the past 15 years. So what's it mean? Nothing. The Internet was just becoming privatized 15 years ago, fewer people owned a computer, much less had access to an Internet gateway.
The most probable explanation for nail gun injuries is that people are stupid. The second explanation is that more builders are using them, because foreign-made tools are cheaper, and are therefore more accessible. The benefit is that work is done faster (unless it's a government contract).
I can't find sales figures for nail guns. But, you know who else came to the same conclusion as me? The CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5614a2.htm
"Since 1991, annual consumer nail-gun injuries have increased approximately 200%. This increase likely corresponds to an increase in availability during the 1990s of inexpensive pneumatic nail guns and air compressors (used to power the nail guns) in home hardware stores; however, no sales data are available for confirmation."
Would this be a breaking news if the amount of nail guns in use increased by 1000% while the number of accidents increased by 200%?