Hot Tap Water: The Scourge of a Generation
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
What are you afraid of in this world? Being bitten by a venomous snake (3 US deaths in 2002)? Dog attack (18 deaths)? Earthquakes (31 deaths)?
Fear not these things. Fear hot tap water, responsible for 40 US deaths in 2002.
Now, you may say, I have heard of a lot of things, but not dying of hot tap water. It's just water! How can it harm me?
Well, you can get scalded. And scalded means burnt.
Canada takes this stuff seriously. They study it. Hot tapwater is responsible for 150 severe and life-changing traumatic injuries to children in Canada annually. The elderly and individuals with disabilities are also prone to this type of injury. They recommend turning your hot water heater down from 140°F to 120°F. Well, no. They recommend law that requires hot water heaters to be turned down to a safer level. "But can I still have a piping hot bath?" you may ask. That, I do not know.
Last fact on death by hot tap water:
Annual deaths by contact with hot tap water vary country to country, but the leader is Japan, with 143. Second is the United States, with 55. We must like our water nice and hot. And third, inexplicably, is Hungary. They must have some crazy water heaters out there. Or, maybe cultural differences. Children are allowed to draw their own baths? I'm grasping at straws. Complete country rankings are here.
I took a bath in Japan once. Most homes don't have their own bathtub, so you go out into the world at night to the neighborhood bath house. You take a shower (a sitting-down shower, sitting on little stools), soap and all, to get clean, and then you get in these communal baths that are....reeeaaally hot. Like, I had to sit very still to even stand it, because then the water right next to my skin was a very little bit cooler from being in contact with me than the rest of the water. It was intense. Then we bundled up in PJs and robes and rushed back home under the covers. It was crazy!
So, to conclude: I believe the hot-water deaths thing. Like, who is in charge of how hot that water is, and what if they're not paying close attention?
But TAP water? C;mon! THIS IS CRAAAAZY!
I turned the water in the shower all the way to hot once on Curt when we were little kids as a "prank" (well, I was 11 or so, should have known better). He was pretty damn pink when he came out, and screaming too. But no (physical) damage done.
I also put so much tabasco in Mike's soda once that I think he puked. He also freaked out cause he thought he was drinking poison.
Good times.
We could continue this thread Gene... :) But yeah, HE DIDN'T DIE, he just turned pink.
i think i almost just died from hot water.
it hurt