Public Health Facts

About 1 in 30 people, in the U.S., are in jail, on probation, or on parole!

Each year, approximately 250,000 American husbands are physically attacked and beaten by their wives.

Some Chinese-made hair bands were fashioned from recycled condoms.

The animal responsible for the most human deaths worldwide is the mosquito.

Until 1990, the deadly poison mercury was used in about 30% of latex paints!

According to the American Society for Microbiology, 90% of women and 75% of men wash their hands after using a public restroom.

It was once against the law to have a pet dog in a city in Iceland!

Safe drinking water can contain up to 500,000 bacteria per liter and still meet EPA safety standards.

Although African-Americans make up only 13% of the U.S. population, they accounted for one half of the estimated new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in 2004.

Every cigarette smoked cuts at least five minutes of life on average, which is roughly the time it takes to smoke one cigarette.

Men are twice as likely to be binge drinkers than women.

Every three seconds, a new baby is born.

One or two alcohol drinks a day can be anti-inflammatory.

One million Americans, about 3,000 each day, take up smoking each year. Most of them are children.

Suicide is the leading cause of death among South Koreans in their 20s and 30s.

Malaysians protect their babies from disease by bathing them in beer.

Jimmy Carter is the first U.S. President to have been born in a hospital.

In Japan, condoms are commonly sold 'door to door'!

Senegalese women spend an average of 17.5 hours a week just collecting water.

Studies show that drivers talking on cell phones, even hands-free, have reaction times comparable to drunk drivers at the legal limit of 0.08% BAC.

Vaccines contain formaldehyde, ethylene glycol (antifreeze), phenol (disinfectant / pesticide), and aluminum.

The effectiveness of flu shots varies significantly year to year, generally ranging from 40% to 60% in preventing flu illness requiring medical attention.

Approximately 25,000 workers died during the building of the Panama Canal, and approximately 20,000 of them contracted malaria and yellow fever.

A person infected with the SARS virus had an approximately 85-90% chance of recovery, though this varied dramatically by age - under 1% mortality for those under 25, but over 50% for people 65 and older.