Everyday Things That Are Actually Dangerous

#1 Candles

Many people use candles for a variety of things. They once lit our homes before electricity and come in handy when the power goes out. The are often used to set the mood romantically, freshen the air, or make the holiday's more festive. But candles are quite dangerous because of the open flame that can easily set something on fire. Over 3% of all house fires are started because of an unattended candle that caught something else, like curtains, bedding, tablecloths, on fire. Most start in the bedroom where the flame is exposed to combustible objects.

#2 Toothpicks

Toothpicks are great for picking stuck food particles from between our teeth after eating. But toothpicks are actually quite dangerous little sticks of wood. Well over 10,000 people are injured seriously from using toothpicks. Some people are hurt from swallowing the pick while others are injured from playing around, like the man from Florida who poked his eyeball out in 2015. They also cause serious injury to gums and have even been known to jab into someone's foot or hand when they are place in garbage bags.

#3 Stairs

It's better to walk up stairs for your health, but it can also cause damage if you are not careful. Every year over 1,000 people die from falling down stairs. Stairs are considered one of the most dangerous things in a home, especially where children or elderly people reside and must use the stairs. They usually have poor balance and coordination, making them very vulnerable. One wrong step and you could plummet down an entire set of stairs.

#4 Elevators

Every year about 30 people die in an elevator accident, and over 12,200 are injured. While most are pretty safe, the dangers from riding in an elevator are very real. In 2011, a woman named Suzanne Hart stepped into an elevator in a New York City building when the doors slammed shut on her leg and the car shot upward. She was crushed to death by being pinned against the wall and the elevator.

#5 Pressed Wood Products

Cheaper furniture and building materials made with pressed wood are very popular because they are affordable and easily disposable. Even homes constructed in the 70s and 80s were made with pressed wood. But if heated, these materials can emit dangerous gasses as the resin and glue use is urea-formaldehyde. This gas causes anything from watery eyes, asthma, skin disease, and even cancer. The United States banned formaldehyde in products in 1989 but today we get most of out pressed wood from China and it has been found in many shipments coming into the country. Lumber Liquidators, a major retailer for construction materials, was closed down and fined for selling a huge amount of illegal pressed wood materials.

#6 Icicles

A beautiful sight to look at in the winter, icicles cover everything with a glistening and sparkly frozen beauty. However, they can also kill you. They can quickly go from pretty to deadly murder weapons when they begin to melt. Over 100 people each year are killed by being impaled by a falling icicle. Big cities with a lot of pedestrians walking by large buildings with ice built up on the ledges or the canopies outside the doorways. The fact that they are sharp and pointy at the end, they become little daggers free falling down onto your heads.

#7 Q-Tips

It states right on the package that Q-tips are not meant to be stuck inside the ears. People believe that they are cleaning the wax built up inside their ear with the tiny cotton swab but doctors warn that you may be actually pushing it back further into the ear. This causes a wax impaction in the ear, causing hearing loss and even damage to cognitive thinking. The Q-tip can also cause the wax to infect the ear canal, and they can even puncture the eardrum by puncturing it.

#8 Your Bed

Believe it or not, every year over 2 million people are seen in emergency rooms due to falling out of bed and over 400,000 are admitted to the hospital with life-threatening injuries. About 500 of those injuries result in death. Falling out of bed is more dangerous than you might think, especially if you fall on your head. Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable but so are intoxicated and over medicated people. People have also been known to get tangled in sheets and blankets and get hurt or even smother from pillows. Also, your mattress doubles in weight every year due to dust mites, dead skin, sweat, and bed bugs, which is a danger in itself and far from sanitary because nobody can afford to replace mattresses every year.

#9 Televisions

Of course most televisions today are lighter, thinner, and do not use the same technology as older sets, but a large number of people still have those bulky old televisions. Televisions today are one of the reasons while people have become so sedentary and lazy because they reduce the amount of activity required daily. They also emit different kinds of radiation like Xrays and the electromagnetic field can cause health issues with prolonged exposure. Also, many children over the years have died from televisions falling on them due to their heavy weight.

#10 Smartphones

One of the most popular consumer products today, smartphones can also cause you harm. Doctors say that you can severely injure your neck from constantly looking downward at your phones, which is known as 'text neck'. Over 30% of car accidents in 2015 occurred due to the driver using a smartphone. Texting and driving have become a real dangerous mix. Also, a crazy number of accidents have occurred by people walking into things, like traffic, from not paying attention to their surroundings while using their smartphones.

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