Opinion

New ways to die

By Scott T. Hards

The other day over dinner, a TV news story reported that eggs and meat from chickens with avian flu had been resold to restaurants and other businesses. The announcers read the story in a grave tone, suggesting a crisis had struck Japan's food supply. The story's impact on my mother-in-law was quick: "That's scary," she mumbled between bites of food. The fearmongers had done their work.

For the past several months, we'ｖe been bombarded with scary news stories about new ways to get sick and die. There's SARS and mad cow disease (or BSE) and now avian flu. Our entire food supply is in jeopardy, they tell us. The media reports their spread and the subsequent scramble by authorities to try to contain the crisis. But among all this, what frequently doesn't get reported, or not enough anyway, is a level-headed analysis of the actual risk.

After my mother-in-law's comment, I quickly reassured her: "The avian flu virus is easily killed if you cook the meat or eggs. In fact, there hasn't been a single case of avian flu spread to humans through eating infected chickens." But for some reason, these facts were missing from the TV report.

Likewise, Japan was quick to ban all imports of beef from the United States when a single cow was found to have BSE there - to squeals of delight from domestic cattle producers - but reports about BSE almost never point out that you cannot get sick by eating regular meat portions of sick cows. It's parts of their nervous systems that present a problem.

And reports from Taiwan about a sole researcher there getting a new case of SARS topped the news that day, but also failed to mention that there's never been a single case in Japan, let alone the fact that more people die from "regular" pneumonia and influenza every day than have died from the entire SARS outbreak globally.

Don't get me wrong: These new diseases do, of course, present a risk (especially to animal handlers and health professionals), but that risk is insignificant when compared to all the old, traditional risks we face daily.

Unfortunately, "news," as the roots of the word imply, needs to be something "new." Old-type stories, like "routine" deaths from car accidents, cancer, strokes and heart disease don't get much air time, even though the vast majority of all deaths are from one of these causes.

So the next time you find yourself getting disturbed or uptight over news reports about the latest rare disease, terrorism, or some horrible unsolved murder somewhere, just turn off the TV, put down your newspaper, or close that Web browser.

Try a self-imposed "news blackout" for a day or so and give yourself a break from the fearmongers. You may find it does wonders for your state of mind.

And while you're relaxing, keep the following in mind: If you live in Japan, watch your weight and blood pressure, and drive safely with your seat belt on, congratulations! You're living one of the lowest-risk lifestyles on the entire planet.

Now pass the chicken, please.

Shukan ST: March 19, 2004

(C) All rights reserved