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Thread: What's killed the most people: guns and knives or tobacco?

  1. #1

    What's killed the most people: guns and knives or tobacco?

    Over in the Christmas Booty thread I fatuously posted a picture of a pipe into a derail about the popularity of guns and knives. In response, Shameless posted this:

    Quote Originally Posted by shameless View Post
    interesting that maybe smoking related items have killed many more folk than guns or knives
    Reading that, I suddenly realised that I simply don't have the foggiest if that is true or not. Both tobacco and guns are pretty recent arrivals on the world stage and a quick google confirms that tobacco was mainly only used for irregular and thus less lethal entheogenic and ritual purposes prior to that, but knives...

    Now I like a good fermi problem and I like crowdsourcing knowledge, so I thought I'd see just how much of a lead balloon such a question might be,

    Anyone interested in trying to firm up the numbers here, because curious minds must know.

  2. #2
    Knock yourself out: (Not literally )


    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/facts...en/index2.html

    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/facts...en/index3.html


    Q: WHO often says that smoking is a top cause of death. Where does tobacco use affect these causes of death?


    Tobacco use is a major cause of many of the world’s top killer diseases – including cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive lung disease and lung cancer. In total, tobacco use is responsible for the death of about 1 in 10 adults worldwide. Smoking is often the hidden cause of the disease recorded as responsible for death.


    Here's an interesting one:

    Diarrhoea is no longer among the 5 leading causes of death, but is still among the top 10, killing 1.5 million people in 2012.
    Last edited by Seriously; Dec 29, 2014 at 07:20 AM.

  3. #3
    Dinger of Hum Chronopolitano's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Seriously View Post
    Diarrhoea is no longer among the 5 leading causes of death, but is still among the top 10, killing 1.5 million people in 2012.

    It ain't killing me, but I do indulge in it every once in a while.

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  5. #4
    MultiModerator Martin's Avatar
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    What is to be said for tobacco is that the amount of people killed by it by others is far more limited then self-inflicted deaths

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    Dinger of Hum Chronopolitano's Avatar
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    Seems to me, life itself has killed more of everything, including people, than any gun or knife.

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  9. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Chronopolitano View Post
    Seems to me, life itself has killed more of everything, including people, than any gun or knife.
    Phew, I nearly took everyone's advice that I should 'get a life'. Thanks to your timely warning I realise how foolish this advice is.

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  11. #7
    Member pepperami's Avatar
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    Smoking is a good way to keep mosquitos away..they surely have/do kill more people than anything else?

    Sent from my GT-I9505

  12. #8
    Bone Collector Bwana's Avatar
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    I'd say religion has killed more people than anything else.

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  14. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Martin View Post
    What is to be said for tobacco is that the amount of people killed by it by others is far more limited then self-inflicted deaths
    not strictly true either- passive smoking or the inhalation of others smoke has exactly the same the same affect on the inhaler as the smoker and causes the same symptoms , many , many thousands of people every year will die from it , far more than random violent crime - hence the no smoking in public places for most of us which will bring the numbers down - if you are a heavy smoker in your home you are slowly poisoning other family members and the pets also of course

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  16. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Bwana View Post
    I'd say religion has killed more people than anything else.
    Try to resist the urge, if possible.

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