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Posted by D Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Monday, November 07, 2011 at 11:36:07 :
In Reply to: The death rate is still ONE posted by ChrisCase [76.212.213.201] on Monday, November 07, 2011 at 08:14:23 :
Most of us will die of cancer or heart disease. That's just the way it is. There are a lot unlikely causes of death, like house fires, but if you put all the unlikely causes together the odds are fair that you might succumb to SOME unlikely thing. I look at smoke detectors like seat belts: they both protect against unlikely causes of death, they're both cheap and they're both mildly inconvenient. Whether it's worth the risk of not using them is something you can decide for yourself. Somebody could probably calculate the number of deaths caused by the manufacture, transportation, disposal and carbon footprint of unnecessary smoke detectors and smoke detector batteries ("unnecessary" meaning ones that never saved anyone from a fire) The very process of making and distributing products, no matter what they are, contributes fractionally to the deaths caused by mining, trucking, factory work, and even retail distribution. I bet there are even a few fatalities attributed directly to smoke detectors -- someone falls off a chair while changing the battery and cracks their head on the table or the alarm goes off and they wake up in a panic and have a heart attack. What about the "carbon footprint" of fire trucks rolling for false alarms? I wouldn't want to calculate all this stuff, but somebody could if they wanted to.
On the other hand, smoke alarms don't just have a slim chance of saving your life. They also have a pretty good chance of saving the pot you accidentally left on the kitchen stove or letting know you accidentally left your woodstove with the door not latched and now it's red hot and the paint on the wall is starting to blister. So even if it doesn't save your life, it might save you from having to clean up a big mess that would have happened without it. Also, if you have a family, people tend to be irrationally protective of their children. It's one thing to say, "I'll take my chances", but what about when there are others you care about living in the house?
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