When comparing statistical reality and our perception, there is a huge
difference between the threats we think we face and those we actually face,
says David Ropeik, director of risk communication at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis.
"We have become a fearful nation. Every day we hear reports about hazards
to our health and safety-from air travel to air bags, cell phones to salmonella
-- which leave us feeling frightened and insecure. But our fears often don't
match the facts, says Ropeik.
Examples of the odds, from Ropeik's book, RISK: A Practical Guide for Deciding
What's Really Safe and What's Really Dangerous in the World Around You:
Struck by Lightning
2
in 10 million
In a plane crash
9 in 10 million
Riskier than
people think:
The sun
1.3 million cases of skin
cancer, 7,800 melanoma deaths in the U.S. annually.
Medical mistakes
As many as 98,000 Americans
die each year in hospitals alone.
Indoor pollution
The air indoors is often
worse than outdoors, especially in classrooms.
Food poisoning
Some 76 million Americans are sickened each year, and 5,000 killed.
Less Risky than Commonly
Believed:
Nuclear radiation
Cell Phones
Hazardous waste
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RelationTrips
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Personal, Practical Advice for Every Traveler
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Friends and
relatives sometimes worry if we voyage to distant places. Many of us keep
ourselves from traveling, too.
By Dina Horwedel
Sometimes our relationship with something intangible keeps us from traveling
-- not relationships with spouses or friends or family, who fear
what might happen if we get on a plane after September 11. Nor with bosses,
who ask us to cancel a trip until a deal goes through. Rather, what keeps
us home is our relationships with our inner consciousness, our fears.
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How to Ease Travel
Anxiety
Draft a complete itinerary.
Give it to friends and family. That way they know where you are every
step of the way. Give contact numbers, too, if you have them.
Provide friends and family with flight
information.
Pack lightly so that you don’t
put yourself at risk with struggling with luggage overseas – at risk for
robbery, and hurting your back!
Pack a complete first aid kit. Many countries and resorts do
not have all of your favorite brands or medicines. You will be glad
that you did.
Get the required and recommended inoculations. Why take risks?
You want to feel great and up for everything.
Use reliable travel information. There are a million bits of wisdom
for every area you travel to. The best advice is to buy a good travel
guide, such as a Moon Guide or Lonely Planet Guide to your destination.
Follow the health and safety precautions listed. |
Sometimes our relationship with fear propels us to discover. Skip Kaltenhauser describes
embracing fear when a CAT scan showed a tumor in his infant son’s brain.
Keith
Epstein writes about swallowing his fear when rock climbing to teach his
daughter an important lesson about believing in herself, even when his
own courage was hard to summon.
But what about embracing fear -- not when jumping into the abyss when
tethered to a bungee or climbing steep cliff faces in the Sierras, but when
the twinge of fear seems unreasonable and downright annoying when planning
a trip?
I would argue that fear is never a reason to cancel an adventure, unless,
of course, your destination is on the State Department
warning list or you have that inner “bad feeling” that just won’t go
away.
Let me tell you something about our culture. We are worrywarts.
We have the need to feel coddled and safe under every conceivable condition.
There was panic in the streets when I was in DC on a visit while the
sniper was at large; and barely-restrained hysteria people in line for
a plane boarding in Boston last May. But look at the odds. People
are killed and hurt every day in this country, which is listed as one of
the most dangerous places in the world in Robert Young Pelton’s World’s
Most Dangerous Places. Why? Because of high rates of violent crime,
drunk driving, bad air, and more.
But I wasn’t too surprised when planning a trip to Chile, one
of the safest places in South America, when I started fielding questions
from friends. “Is it safe?” people asked. “What about disease?”
Americans are, admittedly, not the most politically savvy people on the
planet, and so many folks were certain Pinochet was still firmly at the
helm in Chile. And of course, there were still the comments, “But what about
flying overseas? Do they like Americans?”
There were a million questions, with the implicit rationale for asking
seeming to be that one should not travel, because travel is a risk:
What if you get sick?
What if you get a toothache?
What if you get lost?
What about the language barrier?
Is it safe there?
What if we go to war with Iraq and you are stuck there?
Do they like Americans?
What if your plane crashes?
What about altitude sickness?
Isn’t Easter Island awfully far from Chile? What if your plane has engine
troubles?
What about sunburn?
Is the water OK to drink?
Is the food safe?
Will you be OK there as a woman?
And then, my own questions:
What if my dog dies while I am gone?
What if my money runs out?
What if my mother or someone in my family is ill and cannot reach me?
The doctor encouraged me to get a typhoid shot, even though the CDC only
recommended it. She also told me not to wade in fresh water streams
or lakes (a snail carries larvae which can enter unbroken skin).
She advised against staying with locals (TB, measles, infected water) and
told me not to get any tattoos, body piercings, or share needles with IV
drug users (as if this was ever a worry!) to protect against Hepatitis C.
And then there were the usual warnings about muggings in a country with
very little violent crime (less than 14 murders per year) and being harassed
by men and the like. I found lists of things to take as precautions
(Imodium, antibiotic, aspirin, copies of important documents, all very smart
things that any savvy traveler would pack along, and even sanitary needles
or bleach to sanitize a needle in the event of needing a transfusion or injection!)
and more: my own pillow, a sari that could double as a beach-cover and curtain,
because some places apparently have curtain shortages, you name it.
I don’t mean to poke fun, because most of the suggestions from people
were great, and the questions were not too far off base. But I wondered:
What is our relationship with fear?
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