Statistics Say Paintball is Safer Than Staying Home...

[mjs1217]

http://www.paint-ball.org/safety_report.htm

According to that government survey:

O.24 people of every 1,000 people will go to the ER after being injured due to a paintball-related accident.
93 people of every 1,000 people will go to the ER after being injured at home.

Apparently, paintball is safer than staying home
However, that statement can easily be discredited because people spend ALOT more time at home than playing paintball...
For instance, usually someone will play paintball between 5-10 hours a week, if they live close to a field. That leaves about 155-160 hours left, much of which they are home. Obviously, they are more likely to be hurt in those 150+ hours than they are in those 5-10 hours, but it's still an intresting link nonetheless.


Just thought i'd say all that before soemone else did

Thanks,
-mjs

[SuiciDal Sn Y p ER]

...that's true. i tend to get hurt more at home *cough* barrel stuck on my finger *cough*

[the_next_guy_]

Woah! Water skiing is at the top of the list with 260.84! And boxing is in the middle. We live in a crazy world

[Dryden]

Originally posted by the_next_guy_
Woah! Water skiing is at the top of the list with 260.84!

Actually, this doesn't surprise me. As they say, at high speeds, hitting the water is about the same as hitting concrete ... and anyone who has watched a first time skier, or learned to ski themselves, knows that it takes a little time to learn that once you've fallen, let go of the darn rope!!! I think the number might also be artificially inflated due to general boating accidents, skiing in shallow or crowded water, and alcohol.

The lacrosse figure does shock me, though I guess if you're going to swing a four foot racket among a crowd of 20 people, you might expect the result.

[Wes Janson]

93 people of every 1,000 people will go to the ER after being injured at home.

The deceptive part of this is that all 1,000 people have been injured. All 1,000 paintball players were "injured" (cut, bitten, twisted ankle, bleeding, bruises, etc). Sitting in a chair at home is obviously far more safer than running around shooting projectiles at people. Whether "staying at home" (not leaving your house for x hours) is inherently safer than "playing paintball" (engaging in the sport of paintball in or out of a controlled environment for x hours) is unclear and cannot be determined from the statistics given.

[mjs1217]

No Wes, that isn't what I meant, I worded it poorly. I should have said:

Out of every 1,000 people who play paintball, 0.24 people will be injured in a way that they must go to the ER.
Out of every 1,000 people total , 93 will be injured at home in a way that requires them to be sent to the ER.


-mjs

[Rather]

Dude, playing in the street is much safer than playing in you house... look at the rates...

Home 93
Work Place 66
Moving Vehicles 22
Street 19

[RRfireblade]

The only flaw there is of the 1000 Pballers,93 will still be injured at home as well as the .24 on the field.

Unless the PBallers just stay at the field indefinately.:)

[Target Practice]

I think the more relevant observation is that paintball is at the bottom of the list! How many parents would keep their children from riding their bike, or playing golf. I mean, we have less injuries than bowling, for God's sake.

This is exactly the type of information we need to get out to the general public. Thanks mjs, I am going to link this page to my geocities site, and put it in my AIM profile.

Spread the word!

[fcpchop]

hahahahaha thats awesome, paintball is on the bottom of the list, the funniest thing is you are more likely to get injured playing bowling than paintball! thats hilarious

[RRfireblade]

Sounds good on paper but,

You also have to factor in the percentage of people that play paintball compared to how many people bowl,ride a bicycle or play tennis etc.

[Brophog]

These numbers are completely irrelevant due to the way they collect data for this analysis. It may be flashy to prove a point that "sport X" is safer or more dangerous than the public myth, but as a factual study these numbers are meaningless.

[mjs1217]

Yea, but when that survey was made, the intention wasn't to prove anything. It was made for insurance companies to help figure out rates.

[RRfireblade]

Originally posted by mjs1217
Yea, but when that survey was made, the intention wasn't to prove anything. It was made for insurance companies to help figure out rates.

Regardless,it still shows no real connection to anything relavant.

The government report warns: "CAUTION. NEISS data and estimates
are based on injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms that patients say are
related to products.

So only if the patient claimed "X product" was the cause,then that's where it was counted.Plus, you still have to make the correlation between the percentage of paintball players as a whole versus every other activity on the list.

Now, if you had equal numbers of participants of each activity and took a survey to get the percentage of each that were injured while participating in that activity,you might then have a basis for comparison.