Historical Safety Trivia

1842 Mines Act (British), Limited conditions and hours of work for children 12 years of age. Before this act, children as young as 7 years were harnessed with chains to haul heavy coal trucks in low and narrow passages.

1911 - Triangle ShirtwaistFire in the upper floors of this New York City “sweatshop” caused the death of 146 workers. Most were young, immigrant women. Many jumped to their deaths.

If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an average of 6 months waiting at red lights.

Some people are like Slinkies… not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one tumble down the stairs.

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Raw cashews are poisonous and must be roasted before they can be eaten (this is probably one reason that you can't buy cashews in the shell)

The first electric Christmas lights were created by a telephone company PBX installer. Back in the old days, candles were used to decorate Christmas trees. This was obviously very dangerous. Telephone employees are trained to be safety concious. This installer took the lights from an old switchboard, connected them together, strung them on the tree, and hooked them to a battery.

The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later they were both eaten by a killer whale.

A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen, shaking frantically with what looked like a wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current she whacked him with a handy plank of wood by the back door, breaking his arm in two places. Till that moment he had been happily listening to his Walkman.

Did you know that you are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider?

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

The nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rosey is a rhyme about the plague. Infected people with the plague would get red circular sores ("Ring around the rosey..."), these sores would smell very badly and common folks would put flowers on their bodies somewhere (inconspicuously), so that it would cover the smell of the sores ("...a pocket full of posies..."), People who died from the plague would be burned so as to reduce the possible spread of the disease ("...ashes, ashes, we all fall down).

By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can't sink in quicksand.

In the 1500’s those with money had plates made of pewter. Unknowingly at the time, food with a high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

In the 1500’s lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along roadside would often take them for dead, and prepare them for burial. The "deceased" were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days, and families would gather around, and eat, drink and wait to see if the person would wake up, thus began the custom of holding a "wake."

One of the many Tarzans, Karmuela Searlel, was mauled to death on the set by a raging elephant.

A family of six died in Oregon during WWII as a result of a Japanese balloon bomb.
On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.

If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

Studies show that if a cat falls off the seventh floor of a building it has about thirty percent less chance of surviving than a cat that falls off the twentieth floor. It supposedly takes about eight floors for the cat to realise what is occuring, relax and correct itself. At about that height it hits maximum speed and when it hits the ground it's rib cage absorbs most of the impact.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Abe Lincoln's mother died when the family dairy cow ate poisonous mushrooms and Ms. Lincoln drank the milk.

In Kenya they don't drive on the right or left side of the street in particular, just on whichever side is smoother.

Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately – without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional "pain relievers."

Did you know that Colgate toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns.

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoids peppermints. They'll clear up your stuffed nose.

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish in 1 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Sore throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly even though the product was never been advertised for this use.