Flowers are nature’s way of tricking insects into helping plants have sex, and as a side effect, humans have something to make their gardens look prettier. There are about 350,000 species of flowering plant, and most of them are innocent souls. But a heaping handful of them are vicious killers with zero remorse.

10Kalmia Latifolia

Kalmia latifolia, more commonly known as mountain laurel, produces delicate pink and white flowers in the late spring. It’s the state flower of both Pennsylvania and Connecticut, and it grows just about everywhere in the eastern United States. It’s gorgeous, but underneath that dainty exterior beats the heart of a murderer.

The two main toxins in Kalmia latifolia are andromedotoxin and arbutin, but it’s the first one that you need to worry about. Andromedotoxin simultaneously causes part of the heart to beat quickly and part to beat dangerously slowly. In healthy people, the heart has a natural gate that blocks half of the electrical pulses coming to the organ. The toxin induces Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, which disrupts that gate, letting all the pulses reach your heart. The result? Sudden cardiac death.

But that only happens with large doses. In smaller doses, you can expect to start with a lot of vomiting, after which every hole in your head will leak its fluids down your face. About an hour later, your breathing will slow down, you’ll lose the ability to use your muscles, and you’ll slip into a coma and die.

The terrifying part is that you don’t have to eat the flowers—honey from bees that have visited Kalmia latifolia contains all the toxic properties of the flower itself. The Greeks called it “mad honey,” and they used it to defeat Xenophon of Athens in 400 B.C.

9Jacobaea Vulgaris

Ragwort, a common wildflower in the UK, is an important part of the local ecosystem. Almost 80 insects get food from the plant, and at least 30 of those feed on ragwort exclusively. Because of that, the flowers hold particular interest for conservation societies. That’s good news for the bugs but bad news for everybody else. The World Health Organization has confirmed the presence of at least eight toxic alkaloids in ragwort, and it may have at least 10 more on top of that.

The problem is that unlike most poisons, which quickly leave the system, the alkaloids in ragwort build up in the liver over time. The accumulating toxins result in liver cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver slowly folds in on itself as healthy cells degenerate into an unresponsive mass of scar tissue. The liver’s a resilient organ and will continue operating like normal until up to 75 percent of it’s been destroyed, but by the time symptoms start appearing, the damage is irreversible.

Symptoms include loss of coordination, blindness, stabbing abdominal pains, and yellow eyes from bile pigment that fills the eye’s surface membrane. Unfortunately, this is another toxin that makes its way into honey, as well as into milk from goats who eat ragwort. As a final slap on the face, when farmers try to remove ragwort from their fields, the toxins can seep right into the skin of their hands.

8Veratrum

Found on nearly every mountain in the Northern Hemisphere, Veratrum species put out gorgeous spiral clusters of white, heart-shaped flowers. The plant is commonly grown for ornamental purposes because even the leaves look pretty, and in the wild, it’s commonly confused with garlic. But pretty or not, every piece of this plant, from the roots to the pistils, is lethally toxic.

The first symptom of Veratrum poisoning is violent stomach cramping, which usually starts about 30 minutes after ingestion. As the toxins absorb into the bloodstream, they make a beeline for the sodium ion channels. Sodium ion channels act like gates to allow sodium to flow through nerves, triggering an action. For example, the opening of sodium ion channels in muscle cells starts the process that leads to a muscle contraction.

When Veratrum toxins hit the sodium ion channels, they open the floodgates, forcing the channels to fire continuously. The body doesn’t know what to do with this, so the heart begins to alternately slow and speed up. Muscles all over the body convulse. Eventually, the toxin either causes a heart attack or a coma. It’s believed that this is the poison that killed Alexander the Great.

7Zantedeschia

The gorgeous perennial Zantedeschia has been introduced to every continent but Antarctica and is a staple in ornamental gardens. It’s often called a calla lily, even though it’s not even remotely related to lilies and doesn’t look anything like one. The bright, tube-shaped flowers can be a variety of colors.

Zantedeschia species contain calcium oxalate, a chemical that forms needle-like crystals inside internal organs. More than 1,000 types of plants contain calcium oxalate, and Zantedeschia is one of the most dangerous, partly because it’s so widespread. Even a tiny dose of the chemical is enough to cause a person’s throat to swell, usually along with an intense burning feeling.

The more you eat, the worse the symptoms become, until your throat swells so large it squeezes your airways shut. In one incident, a Chinese restaurant accidentally put the flower petals from a toxic plant into their food, putting everyone who ate it in the hospital.

6Colchicum Autumnale

Colchicum autumnale is native to the UK, but it can now be found across most of Europe and New Zealand. One of its common names is “naked lady,” which is a deceptively sexy name for a cold-blooded killer. The only known antidote for Colchicum poisoning is a slow, painful death.

The chemical at work here is colchicine, a poison that kills with methods similar to arsenic, systematically shutting down of all of your body’s vital functions. Mass organ failure, blood clots, and nerve disruptions are just a few of the horrifying symptoms of Colchicum poisoning. Every few days, a new set of symptoms appears as yet another internal system goes belly up.

Death can take anywhere from days to weeks, but when you eat enough, it’s always fatal. And for whatever reason, the flower leaves you conscious to the bitter end, forcing you to live through each excruciating moment. People have compared death from Colchicum to cholera.

5Laburnum

Everybody’s brain is hardwired to accept nicotine through receptors the same shape as nicotine molecules. Despite their name, nicotinic receptors can also bond with other chemicals. One such chemical is cytisine.

In low doses, cytisine isn’t terribly harmful. As a drug, it sometimes helps people quit smoking because of its ability to bond to nicotinic receptors. But in large doses, it’s positively lethal.

Laburnum poisonings have been recorded for centuries and usually involve children who eat either the flowers or the seed casings, which look like pea pods. The cytisine, which is present in every single part of the tree, starts working in minutes. Poisoning starts with intense vomiting followed by streams of foam pouring out of the mouth. After about an hour, the convulsions start.

Normally, convulsions occur intermittently, like ocean waves. But with cytisine poisoning, the convulsing waves are so close together that your muscles permanently contract, which is called a tetanic contraction. It all culminates in a deep coma and death. Fortunately, people don’t usually die from Laburnum poisoning these days as long as they get to the hospital in time.

4Cerbera Odollam

Cerbera odollam probably has the most accurate alternate name in the entire plant kingdom: To Indian locals, it’s known as the “suicide tree.” And its reach goes far beyond suicide—according to a team of researchers who investigated a number of deaths in the southwest region of India, Cerbera odollam is the perfect murder weapon. In a 10-year period, at least 500 deaths were confirmed to be the work of the flower-bearing tree, which kills through a potent glycoside called cerberin.

Cerberin starts working within an hour. After some light stomach pain, you slip into a quiet coma, and your heart politely stops beating. The entire process takes place in about three hours. The chemical is untraceable after the fact, which is why it’s commonly used as a discreet murder weapon. A research team in India believes that up to twice as many people died from Cerbera odollam as they discovered—most likely homicide victims in cases where nobody thought to suspect foul play.

3Sanguinaria Canadensis

Commonly known as bloodroot, Sanguinaria grows wild in eastern North America. Native Americans used the blood-red roots as an ornamental dye, but they also used it to induce abortions. Enough of it will put you in a coma.

People more recently have taken to using it as a home remedy for skin cancer, with horrible results. Bloodroot contains a chemical called sanguarine, which, in addition to being a dangerous toxin, is an escharotic substance. Escharotics kill tissue and slough it off as a creamy pulp, leaving behind a dark black scar called an eschar. In other words, putting bloodroot on your skin causes your skin cells to kill themselves.

The same thing happens internally. The chemical disrupts an enzyme called Na+/K+-ATPase, which does the important job of pumping sodium out of cells and pumping potassium in. When that doesn’t happen, all functions break down.

2Adenium Obesum

Native to Africa, Adenium obesum has been used as a spear poison by tribes for centuries. The desert rose, as the preparation is called, is made by boiling the plant for 12 hours before removing all the plant matter and letting the liquid evaporate. The resulting goo is a highly concentrated poison. It’s so toxic that just a bit of the poison from a spears or arrows brings down large game before they can run 2 kilometers (1.2 mi), so hunters can stay on their trail while they gradually bite the dust.

This specific plant has been used by tribes all over Africa to kill animals as large as elephants, and now that we’ve studied it, we know why. The plant contains a chemical called ouabain, which causes almost immediate respiratory failure at high doses.

Another flower in the Apocynaceae family grows in the same region, and hunters often use it in conjunction with Adenium. It also contains ouabain, and it turns out that humans aren’t the only African natives using its killing power—the African crested rat will chew the flower’s bark and lick his hair with the toxins, turning itself into a scurrying ball of unexpected death.

1Oenanthe Crocata

In 2002, eight tourists in Argyll, Scotland decided to forage some choice water parsnips from a nearby stream. Prize in hand, they returned home and put them in a curry dish. The next day, four of them were in the hospital. What they’d thought was water parsnip was actually Oenanthe crocata, or hemlock water dropwort. The plant has mortality rate of up to 70 percent, so the group was lucky nobody died.

Hemlock water dropwort has an interesting property. It’s lethal, sure. But the killer toxin, oenanthotoxin, relaxes the muscles around your lips and forces you to smile, even when you’re in the throes of fatal convulsions. The plant has been used in Greece since at least the eighth century B.C., when Homer coined the term “sardonic grin” to describe the grisly smile adorning the faces of water dropwort victims.

Several governments around the world have hit lists of people they want dead. The lists usually contain names of people that are claimed by the governments to be terrorists or spies. As we are about to find out, this is not always so. Suspected terrorists, human right activists, and journalists have also been targeted.

Not every government will own up to having such a list. For the ones that do, they deny that these are hit lists and call them other names. Even then, they will rarely discuss the topic. Here are 10 governments that currently have hit lists or had them in the past.

10 United States

The US government has a not-so-secret hit list, the “disposition matrix,” that contains the names, locations, and preferred methods of killing people the government considers enemies of the United States.

While the existence of the list is an open secret, the names on it aren’t. At the time that Barack Obama was president, the government decided who got on the list during weekly meetings the press called “Terror Tuesday.” Obama only approved the list. The names were added by US military and intelligence officials and, sometimes, the British government.

Once names were approved, the military and the CIA tracked the suspects and killed them with drone-launched missiles or covert special forces assaults. In rare instances, they arrested and interrogated the targets. Most were suspected jihadists in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia.

The disposition matrix has been criticized because it supposedly contains names of people who might not be terrorists. Drone strikes also kill lots of civilians. Between 2001 and 2013, over 400 Pakistanis died due to 330 US drone strikes. Nevertheless, the US government denies that the disposition matrix is a kill list. The government insists that the matrix is merely a form of defense against people threatening the US.^[1]

9 China

Whether China has an active hit list is unconfirmed. But it did in 2010 when its Ministry of State Security killed over 30 CIA spies operating in the country. The killings started in 2010 when the Ministry of State Security (China’s equivalent of the CIA) infiltrated a CIA spy network operating in China.

At the time, the CIA was using some low-key tech for communication. It was unencrypted, and CIA spies were even using regular laptops and desktops for communication. The system was originally intended for Middle Eastern countries with weak counterintelligence capabilities.

Unfortunately for the CIA, China has a strong and active counterintelligence capability. It tracked down CIA spies using the unencrypted communication channels and assassinated these individuals. China clearly knew what it was doing as it only killed real CIA spies. Although 30 were confirmed dead, intelligence officers believe the figures is higher.^[2]

8 Britain

The British government has its own kill list. Interestingly, most of the targets are British citizens. A few years ago, the British intelligence agencies—MI5, MI6, and the Government Communications Headquarters—drafted a list containing the names of 200 British citizens who had joined the Islamic State.

Hundreds of British citizens joined the Islamic State at its height. The actual figure is unknown, but it is believed to be around 700. Britain feared that the radicalized citizens could return to the country to launch terrorist attacks. So it settled on assassinating the top 200, including 12 bomb experts.^[3]

The intelligence agencies passed the list to Special Air Service commandos inserted into Iraq’s territory. The commandos were tasked with finding and killing these jihadists, although they were allowed to capture some targets. The British government also targeted some jihadists with drones.

7 France

France used to have a hit list—at least when Francois Hollande was president. Hollande’s kill list was inspired by the US disposition matrix that we already talked about. The targets were individuals believed by the French government to have taken people as hostages or done things that hurt French interests. Most were in Syria and the Sahel region of Africa.

Like the US leaders, the French government called the killings “neutralization of strategic objectives,” “targeted eliminations,” or “homicide operations” instead of “murders” or “assassinations.” However, unlike the US, the French government used manned airplanes because it did not have attack drones.

At other times, the French government just passed on its information about the target to the US, which killed these individuals with drones. However, we have limited information about France’s kill list because the country is often quiet about so-called targeted assassinations. We do know that the list was compiled by the French army and the Directorate-General for External Security, France’s equivalent of the CIA.^[4]

6 Germany

The German government has a hit list even though it does not handle its own dirty work. That is the responsibility of the United States. Germany passes details about targets to the US, which adds them to the Joint Prioritized Effects List (JPEL), a hit list of 3,000 drug dealers, Taliban, and Al-Qaeda fighters operating in Afghanistan.

Targets listed on the JPEL are hunted by Task Force 373 (now called Task Force 3-10), a secret US team operating in Afghanistan.^[5] Troops on the team are ordered to capture or kill people on the list. However, they will often kill because it can be difficult to capture targets who resist arrest or attempt to escape.

5 Russia

The existence of a kill list maintained by the elusive Russian government is inconclusive. Russia does not admit that it has a hit list. The US and NATO do not make this claim about Russia, either. However, Ukraine does.

In 2018, Ukraine said that Russia had a list of 47 Russian and Ukrainian journalists it was planning to kill. Ukraine revealed this after staging the murder of Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko. News agencies reported that Babchenko had been assassinated in his home in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, until Babchenko showed up the next day telling everybody that he was not dead.

Babchenko and the Ukrainian authorities explained that the hoax assassination was meant to reveal Russia’s plan to murder Babchenko and several others. Although the Ukrainian government did not say how this helped to uncover Russia’s supposed sinister plot, officials went on to release a list of 47 people whom Russia planned to kill.^[6]

4 Iran

CIA spies operating in Iran used the same flawed communication channel that got them exposed in China. Iran also intercepted their communications and identified several CIA spies whom the government later hunted and killed. Interestingly, Iran discovered the communication channel first and could have informed China.

Iran became aware of the spy network after suspecting that CIA agents were actively spying on its nuclear program. A CIA double agent showed the Iranians a secret website that the agency used to communicate with its operatives in Iran. Of course, Iran knew that this couldn’t be the only site, so they went in search of the rest.

When we say “search,” we mean Iran actually used a search engine (Google) to find secret CIA websites on the Internet. Then the government tracked, captured, and executed CIA spies who visited the site. Only a few managed to escape. Iran shared the information with several other friendly nations, including China. Then China used this information to track, capture, and kill CIA spies operating in its territory.

John Reidy, a former contractor with the CIA, blamed the agency for the botched spy operation. Reidy had discovered the flaw years earlier and warned the CIA about it. The agency responded by firing him.^[7]

3 Philippines

The Philippine government has a not-so-secret hit list of 649 people it considers terrorists. The existence of the list was revealed when the government tried to get the courts to declare the targeted people as terrorists. If that had happened, the court would have unwittingly given the state the power to kill its citizens.

Curiously, the list contained names of several non-terrorists like Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a United Nations human rights advocate in the country. In fact, lots of the targeted people are known activists and not terrorists. In some instances, the government skipped the names altogether and used aliases like “John Doe” or “Jane Doe.” This would allow the government to add the names at a later date.

The Philippine government insisted that the people on the list were members of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA). Human Rights Watch condemned the list, which has been described as President Rodrigo Duterte’s way of getting rid of political critics and rivals.^[8]

2 Israel

Israel has never hidden the fact that it has a hit list. In fact, in August 2001, the government released a list of seven Palestinians it was planning to kill. Israel claimed that it added the Palestinians to its kill list because the Palestinian Authority had refused to turn them over after terrorist acts were committed against Israel.

Other agencies suspect that the released hit list was a PR attempt by Israel. The country may have wanted to prove to the world that it only killed Palestinians when they refused to cooperate. The move was also a psychological attempt to force the men to flee and desist from launching further attacks against Israel.

The country uses different ways to neutralize the targets on its list. Two common methods are snipers and helicopter-launched missiles. Less orthodox strategies include strapping bombs to the telephones of the targets. Like almost every other nation, Israel does not call the killings “assassinations.” It calls them “targeted killings.”^[9]

Palestinians are often the victims of Israel’s so-called targeted killings. This is very controversial in Gaza and the West Bank where helicopter-launched missile attacks have slaughtered lots of civilians. This has increased anti-Israeli sentiments in the areas of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinians.

1 Sri Lanka

In 2010, it was revealed that the Sri Lankan government had a secret hit list of 35 journalists and NGO workers. The nation’s intelligence agency supposedly ranked the targets according to their importance. However, the government had not killed anybody before the list was leaked.

One of the targets was J.C. Weliamuna, the Sri Lankan director for Transparency International. Two years earlier, he had escaped a suspected assassination attempt when an unidentified person threw a grenade into his home.

The attack was believed to be sponsored by the Sri Lankan defense ministry, which was furious that Weliamuna was representing some Sri Lankans in human rights abuse cases involving the ministry. The government never investigated the attack.

Another person on the list was Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Sri Lankan NGO. He received death threats in 2009, a year before the list was leaked. The Sri Lankan government has been implicated in torture, murder, and forced disappearances of 14 journalists since 2006.

The Sri Lankan government denied that it had a hit list, although officals agreed that they had planned to monitor some groups. Amnesty International said that the Sri Lankan government had compiled and deliberately released the list to intimidate NGO workers and journalists in the country.^[10]

There are a variety of ways that you can die depending on where you are and what you’re doing when it happens. Although some individuals peacefully pass in their sleep, others have to go through immensely uncomfortable and drawn-out deaths.

SEE ALSO: 10 Weird Causes Of Death Through History ?utm_source=seealso&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=direct

Death itself isn’t surprising. What’s astonishing is that you may die from the most mundane and unexpected parts of daily life. We all do these seemingly insignificant things without thinking twice about them. However, somewhere out there, someone has found a way to die because of them in one way or another.

10 Doing Nothing

We’ve already established that there’s no way to escape dying. Our bodies are inherently designed to do that when enough time passes—unless we manage to die earlier, which is always a possibility given how clumsy we are as a species.

One would think that unnatural deaths could be completely avoided by doing nothing at all. It stands to reason that if you’re doing nothing, you’re not doing anything that can kill you earlier than you’re supposed to die. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case as doing nothing has a kill count of its own.

Yup, it kills about 5.3 million people every year. Scientists say that it’s almost as bad as smoking or obesity, and we should make sure to keep moving around to lower our chances of being included in that statistic.

We’re not saying that it doesn’t make sense as physical inactivity is known to be an unhealthy habit. All we’re saying is that we didn’t know that sitting on your couch all day can actually kill you.^[1]

9 Sneezing

Depending on where you are in the world, people’s responses to sneezing could range from blessing you to telling you the correct way to do it so as not to offend them. However, it’s not a particularly noteworthy bodily function.

Even if we don’t fully understand the mechanics behind sneezing, we shrug and go about our daily lives without ever thinking about it. Of course, that’s until we find out that it’s also one of the few regular functions of the body that can kill you.

You see, sneezing triggers some powerful responses in the body, especially among all the organs involved in the process. Many people suggest blocking your mouth and nose to keep you from making sounds during sneezing. As one man found out, that is one way of absolutely destroying your pharynx and general throat area.

That’s not the only way it can kill you, either. People have died from it in a variety of ways—from brain hemorrhage to heart attacks caused directly by sneezing.^[2]

8 Taking The Stairs

Taking the stairs is a fairly normal part of our daily routine that we don’t really think about a lot as, let’s face it, they’re stairs. Thinking about whether they can kill us is the equivalent of worrying if walls can kill us. Even if the stairs do cause injuries due to the accidental fall here and there, it certainly doesn’t come across as something with a fatality rate.

However, multiple studies conducted around the world have shown that stairs are deadlier than we give them credit for. In the UK, around 1,000 people die from falling down stairs every year. This is ridiculously high if you think about it. The researchers assume that most of it is just the elderly doing elderly things.

Another study in India found out that most people who died on stairs were in the 31–40 age group, followed by 21–30. In contrast, US statistics show that only 27 people die due to elevators every year, even though viral accident videos tell us that elevators are supposed to be a whole lot scarier than the stairs.^[3]

7 Mowing Your Lawn

Having a lawn is out of reach for many people due to skyrocketing real estate prices across the country. However, for the select few who do, mowing it is one of the regular parts of their weekly routine.

Although it’s probably easy to find a way to die from a lawnmower if you really want to, it’s not more dangerous than any other machine you have in the house. (You can always accidentally stick your head in the mixer.) However, if you check out the stats on how many people manage to kill themselves mowing their lawns, you’d be surprised.

It was highlighted by Kim Kardashian in one of her tweets. She pointed out that 69 people died due to lawnmowers every year. That’s just the deaths. In addition, about 250,000 people injure themselves using the lawnmower every year.^[4]

6 Furniture

If you live in a house, chances are that it has furniture unless you’re going for the really minimal Instagram look that’s all the rage these days. Even if nearly all of us have stubbed our toe on a chair or some other mundane piece of furniture at some point, it doesn’t come across as something that could kill you in the way that leaving the gas on could.

Yet, furniture causes an unexpected number of deaths across the world every year. Many of them are due to accidental tipping.

Now we aren’t sure if furniture manufacturers are still not skilled enough at their jobs after all these years of practice. But we know that a bunch of consumer checks are in place before you can set up a furniture retail store. As for the numbers, a child dies due to a piece of furniture falling on top of him every two weeks in the US. About 2,800 injuries were reported in 2016 alone.^[5]

5 Balloons

Balloons are a common decoration at a wide variety of events—from Christmas to birthday parties to surprise interventions. Even though our fascination with balloons drops in direct proportion to how old we get, we don’t exactly think of them as deadly.

For the one-off ridiculously stupid person who may decide to swallow them for some unfathomable reason, health care has come far enough to stop it from being a fatal accident. Right? Not really.

Even in 2019, a surprisingly high number of people—primarily children—die of choking on balloons, and none of our futuristic health care can do anything to stop it.

Of course, there are other things in the house that kids can swallow and choke on, too. But balloons are particularly dangerous because they can obstruct the breathing pipes more effectively than most other things. That’s because balloons are all elastic and rubbery. It’s difficult to get them out even if you do make it to the ER in time.^[6]

4 Playing Golf

Depending on how rich and old you are, golf is either a leisurely activity you indulge in on weekends or a highly competitive sport you regularly play with a whole group of equally competitive friends. We won’t say it’s impossible to die on a golf course if you really try, but rogue golf balls hitting people in the wrong spot cause more fatalities than you’d think.^[7]

A ridiculously high number of people have died from flying golf balls. These individuals were just in the unfortunate path of the golf ball—like a 10-year-old boy in Alabama or a 69-year-old man in California or even a 27-year-old in Queensland, New Zealand.

3 Going To A Doctor

Of course, we’re not talking about serious diseases that will kill you nonetheless, only a bit faster if you don’t go to the doctor. We’re talking about the general phenomenon of visiting a doctor as a surprisingly high number of people die from faulty prescriptions and medical errors that could have been avoided.

The most surprising culprit? Bad handwriting from doctors.

Anyone who has ever thought “no way anyone can read this” was right after all, according to the numbers at least. Every year, about 7,000 people die due to bad handwriting with prescriptions per a study by the National Academies of Science’s Institute of Medicine.

In addition, general medical errors cause a whopping 250,000 deaths every year. That’s a conservative number depending on which study you’re reading. (The estimate can go as high as 440,000.)^[8]

2 Doing Your Laundry

We’re used to the idea of certain things in the household turning dangerous if not taken care of—like heavy-duty computers or exposed power sockets. However, none of those things have anything on doing your laundry.

If you thought there was no way that washing your clothes—especially the part where you dry them—can pose any sort of danger to you, let alone kill you, it’s time to rethink your approach to laundry. Regularly taking care of the dryer may someday prove to be the difference between staying alive and, well, not.

The US Fire Administration even has a special instructions manual for using the clothes dryer, which kills an average of 13 people and injures 444 every year in the US. The primary cause is the dryer catching fire due to reasons like not cleaning out the lint after every round or just generally not taking care of your electronic equipment like a responsible person.^[9]

1 Taking A Bath

Unless you’re not a part of civilized society or you’re not bathing on a dare or something, we assume that you take a bath every day (or at least regularly). It’s not exactly rocket science. You go in, splash yourself with water, wash with some soap, dry yourself, and come back out. It’s a mundane part of our everyday routine. If not for the irritating need to stay clean to be presentable to people, most of us wouldn’t even bother with it.

For a part of such a basic routine, though, taking a bath puts you at an unnaturally high risk of dying if statistics are to be believed. In the US alone, an average of 335 people die due to drowning in their own bathtubs every year. You’d think that most of them were kids or the elderly, but about half of those deaths were able-bodied adults.^[10]

Surprisingly, another common cause of dying inside the bathroom is hot water. Apparently, 20 people in the UK lose their lives every year due to burns from scalding water.

You can check out Himanshu’s stuff at Cracked and Screen Rant, get in touch with him for writing gigs here, or just say hello to him on Twitter.

Prior to the discovery of antibiotics, severe bacterial infections were one of the major causes of human deaths throughout the developed world. We all have probably used antibiotics at some point in our lives to treat an infection.

Before the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, people died from otherwise small scrapes and cuts through complications of infection. In the modern antibiotic era, being sick is now seen as an inconvenience. Really, who wants to be ill longer than necessary?

But bacteria do more than cost us sick days. They can still kill us despite the discovery of these modern drugs. Bacteria are smart and are figuring out ways to resist antibiotics. There are many infections that currently cannot be treated with any antibiotic, killing tens of thousands of people each year in the United States alone.

Even knowing that unpleasant fact, some bacteria go overboard, not content to give us a flu-like illness. These are the artists of death. So read on . . . because that dirty door handle in the public restroom will never seem the same again.

10 E. coli Hemorrhagic Colitis

E. coli are bacteria that can really make for a crappy day. These bugs usually live in the intestinal tract, minding their own business. They are excreted in fecal matter. One exceedingly bad breed of E. coli makes a chemical called “Shiga toxin.” This is not a character that anyone wants hanging around in his guts.

A human might pick up these bacteria by consuming poorly treated food or water contaminated by excrement. In countries that lack proper water sanitation facilities, this is definitely a problem.

Once in the body, Shiga toxin–producing E. coli get to work causing a lovely disease known as hemorrhagic colitis. Essentially, this means the bacteria will cause such bad, bloody diarrhea that the victim, if untreated, can poop himself to death through severe dehydration, kidney damage, and blood loss.

Treatment includes rehydration with oral and intravenous fluids until the body rids itself of the bacteria.^[1]

9 Scarlet Fever

A common killer in the 18th and 19th centuries, scarlet fever still makes its rounds today. It terrorized centuries of humans and was known to kill entire groups of children in families. Many well-known individuals throughout history lost loved ones to this disease, including Charles Darwin, who lost at least one child to scarlet fever.

This disease is caused by a group of bacteria known as group A beta-hemolytic streptococci. Scarlet fever often begins with a sore throat and a fever, commonly known as strep throat. As it progresses, it causes a red, bumpy rash that spreads in a head-to-toe manner, causing the victim to have a red, or scarlet, appearance. In addition, it causes a red, bumpy, strawberry-appearing tongue.^[2]

Scarlet fever can cause throat abscesses, heart problems, and kidney problems, leading to death. It is easily treated today with antibiotics but still causes death and long-term injury to victims who do not receive adequate and early treatment.

8 Tuberculosis

If there was one disease that evoked fear in our ancestors at the turn of the 19th century, it was pulmonary tuberculosis, the most common form of the disease. However, it is an ancient sickness, with Egyptian mummies having been found with tuberculosis lesions on their skeletons. This disease has killed quite a few famous people, including Franz Kafka and Henry David Thoreau.

The microorganism Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the cause of all forms of tuberculosis. The most common form, pulmonary tuberculosis, involves a bacterial infection of the lungs. Untreated, the bacteria become walled off in the lungs and can remain dormant for years.

Active infections may lead to a wide variety of pulmonary symptoms, including a bloody cough, weight loss, and trouble breathing. The most severe infections allow the bacteria to spread to other body parts, including the kidneys and skeletal system.^[3]

Acutely and chronically ill individuals lost large amounts of body weight fighting this infection, leading to a frail and wasted appearance. As a result, tuberculosis was also known as “consumption” and “the white death.” Treatment includes anywhere from six months to years of antibiotics.

7 Tetanus

Also known as “lockjaw” or “the grinning death,” tetanus is a dramatic illness to behold. It was a noted complication of infected wounds in the Napoleonic Wars. Spread via dirt or contaminated soil, tetanus is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani.

This bacterium earns its specialization in death and destruction via its neurotoxin called tetanus toxin. This toxin binds irreversibly at the junction between nerve cells and muscles, which results in the characteristic and dramatic muscle spasms of the disease.

Individuals affected with tetanus undergo severe whole body muscle spasms strong enough to cause locking of the jaw, grinding of teeth, an involuntary smile, and involuntary muscle spasms strong enough to break bones, including the spine. Death can result from paralysis of the respiratory muscles, making breathing impossible, or secondary infections.^[4]

Without proper medical care, tetanus is a deadly disease. Treatment includes medications such as skeletal muscle relaxers, antibiotics, antitoxins, immune globulins, and supportive care to survive this deadly infection. A tetanus infection is considered a medical emergency.

6 Meningococcal Meningitis

A nervous system infection is never fun. In meningococcal meningitis, the lining of the brain or spinal cord becomes infected with a bacterium known as Neisseria meningitidis. It still occurs today throughout the world but is most common in sub-Saharan Africa.^[5]

Meningococcal meningitis commonly presents as a nervous system infection or as a blood infection. In the former case, the person may have fevers, headaches, neck stiffness, visual changes, and vomiting. In the case of blood infection, the person may develop a purple rash and bleeding into the skin and organs. This infection is deadly, but vaccines have made this disease much less of a threat than it once was.

5 Anthrax

It may surprise many readers to know that anthrax is not just the name of a heavy metal band but also a disease and potential weapon of bioterrorism. Anthrax (caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis) is not content to be limited to one body system. Instead, it can be found in three main infectious forms: inhalational, cutaneous (infecting the skin), and gastrointestinal.

Anthrax is considered to be a potential biological weapon because its spores can be transmitted through the air and inhalational anthrax is deadly. It was used in 2001 to contaminate US mail envelopes.

In the cutaneous form of anthrax, an ulcerating lesion develops. As long as it is contained and treated without spreading, this is a milder form of the disease.

The inhalational form, however, is a bigger problem. Once inhaled, anthrax first causes flu-like symptoms. Later, the victim begins to feel chest pain and shortness of breath. Within days, almost all patients who progress with this form of the disease die of blood infections. If caught early enough, the disease can be treated with antibiotics.^[6]

The gastrointestinal form of anthrax is not pleasant, either. It is obtained from eating undercooked meats. In this type of anthrax, ulcers can form anywhere in the infected portion of the gastrointestinal tract—from the mouth to the anus—which can lead to serious bleeding.

Anthrax can also infect the brain and spinal cord. Due to its many potentially deadly forms, anthrax has set a high bar of expectations for any band bearing its name.

4 Leptospirosis

Unlike other diseases, leptospirosis can be unassuming in terms of its symptoms. Coiled and spiral types of bacteria called Leptospira cause leptospirosis. It is rare in the United States and can be spread from animals to humans, often through animal urine.^[7]

The symptoms of leptospirosis are vague. An infected person can have no symptoms at all. In other cases, symptoms include yellowing of the skin and kidney failure, leading to death. The latter form of the disease is more severe, and the syndrome of this infection was described as Weil’s disease.

3 Syphilis

Sexually transmitted infections are becoming more common in the United States. Whether dating apps or changing culture is to blame, there’s no doubt that we all need to be careful in our sexual encounters.

As a sexually transmitted disease, syphilis (aka the “great imitator” for its wide variety of presentations) has a long history of shame. Countries often blamed each other for the disease, attributing it to the “other” population. Outbreaks in wartime decades were common across populations. Famous figures were not spared, and it is suspected that Vincent van Gogh and Beethoven may have contracted this sickness.

Syphilis is caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum and occurs in three stages, known as primary, secondary, and tertiary. In the primary phase, an ulcerating lesion (chancre) appears, usually on the genitals. The lesion may resolve or may never be noticed.^[8]

As the disease progresses, the patient will develop flu-like symptoms and enter into the secondary stage. A widespread rash may appear, along with hair loss, headaches, and liver inflammation. The disease may lie dormant for up to 30 years, in which the late or tertiary phase will develop.

In this final phase, the patient may develop disfiguring lesions, heart problems, a central nervous system infection, and even insanity in a condition known as “general paresis of the insane.”

2 Toxic Megacolon Associated With Clostridium difficile Colitis

Diarrhea is not just an embarrassing reason to miss work. While most of us have probably had a passing case of diarrhea from a number of causes, it’s safe to say that many people have not had the sort of intestinal infection that causes a condition known as toxic megacolon.

In this condition, the intestines become infected and swollen and the patient becomes very ill. In the most serious cases, the intestines can become so swollen that they burst, requiring emergency surgery. Although many different bacteria can cause toxic megacolon, Clostridium difficile is a deadly cause of toxic megacolon.

Infection with Clostridium difficile occurs when the deadly bacteria overwhelm the normal bacteria in the gut of a person. If left untreated, it can cause serious intestinal inflammation and swelling. Severe cases of toxic megacolon, even without perforation, have been known to result in almost total intestinal resection to save the life of the patient.^[9]

1 Necrotizing Fasciitis

Also known as “flesh-eating bacteria,” necrotizing fasciitis is nothing to laugh about. Although the bacteria do not actually eat the flesh, they do infect the tissue and underlying structures which leads to tissue death and sloughing. Many different types of bacteria can cause necrotizing fasciitis.^[10]

It was first described during the US Civil War in a rapidly progressive series of cases in which individuals had necrotizing fasciitis of the genital region. A multidisciplinary team, including a surgeon to cut away the infected tissue, is almost always necessary, and amputations may occur.

I am a healthcare provider and an entrepreneur. In my free time, I like to exercise and enjoy the outdoors.

From time to time, YouTube videos of animals hunting prey in incredible ways pop up and go viral. Usually they’re one-off random events but there’s a long list of unknown and unusual methods that animals use frequently as their method for hunting.

As the saying goes, it’s a jungle out there. You also hear it’s survival of the fittest, but sometimes those which aren’t the fittest adapt and get crafty.

10 Times Wild Animals Saved Humans

10 Komodo dragon

These beasts, sometimes called ‘land crocodiles’, are the largest living lizards on earth, growing up to 3m long and weighing up to 70 kilograms. They are carnivores and have been known to have fatal encounters with humans, but don’t worry they’re largely restricted to a few remote islands in Indonesia, including Komodo (which is essentially a national park) hence the name.

Komodos hunt in packs but their method of killing is to charge their prey and attack their underside or throat with their sharp claws and serrated teeth, causing rapid blood loss or fatal lacerations. However, an initial Komodo charge may not always finish the job, instead severely wounding the prey, before the dragon proceeds to tear flesh off its grounded victim and eat them alive.

There’s also a theory their teeth contain venom to make matters worse for unfortunate prey.^[1]

9 Golden eagles

These birds of prey have a wide variety of diet, including squirrels, grouse, pheasants, reptiles and small birds, but they’ve become well known for their attacks on deer. These dark brown Northern Hemisphere eagles have powerful feet and sharp talons which enables them to swoop in from above and grab indefensive prey.

However, golden eagles went viral on Youtube after shocking videos emerged of them swooping on goats on the edge of cliffs, before picking them up and dropping them deliberately from a distance into the rocks below to kill them. The Golden eagles will then feed on the carcass of the dead goat. Given the weight of goats, sometimes more than 100 kilograms or 250 pounds, catching them and picking them up mid-flight is no easy feat. Eagles are opportunistic feeders but this is taking it to the next level.^[2]

8 Electric eel

There’s very few animals like electric eels when it comes to the way they hunt, utilizing their unusual electric charge to stun their prey. Electric eels usually inhabit dark and murky waters too, so their shock power can literally shock unsuspecting victims who become a meal within seconds.

An electric eel’s diet is carnivorous typically consisting of fish, crustaceans, insects and small vertebrates, like amphibians and reptiles. The eel uses its shock power or defence but also to hunt.

The eel’s motion sensitive hairs on its body detect any pressure change in the dark water, which triggers a doublet, which is two rapid electric pulses that hit the prey’s muscles, stunning them and eventually paralysing them, allowing the eel to consume it.^[3]

7 Deinopidae

These arachnids are commonly known as net casting spiders, which articulately explains their unique hunting technique to catch unsuspecting prey. Found in the tropics in Australia, Africa and the Americas, net casting spiders are hunters after dark, utilizing their exceptional vision from their huge eyes to spot prey – typically ants, moths, crickets or beetles—before casting their net over the victim in a lightning-quick movement.

The spider makes the net out of its own silk, sometimes three times its own size. It typically sets a faeces trap as a target point, before waiting in earnest for a victim to approach. At that moment, with its ogre-faced eyes ready for any movement, it entangles its prey at incredible speed with its net before biting and consuming them.^[4]

6 Frogfish

These anglerfish are super ugly and they’re also poor swimmers who typically remain on the ocean floor, but they’re highly effective hunters. Their unusual look is designed to help catch prey, with a combination of camouflage and mimicry. Once they lure in a victim, they strike a lightning speed, as little as 6 milliseconds (the reaction time for most humans is 200 milliseconds).

Frogfish are covered in spinules which help camouflage while some can change colour to blend in. Their technique to catch their prey doesn’t involve them moving, rather luring in victims with strange-looking appendages that are effectively bait. The appendages, which often look like worms, wiggle around when a victim approaches, luring it closer, before the frogfish strikes just as the prey is within grasp with its rapid ambush. The frogfish has a huge wide mouth which suddenly opens and engulfs the victim and a special muscle in the esophagus that ensures the prey cannot escape as its swallowed. Frogfish can swallow animals twice its size.^[5]

Top 10 Animals That People Eat Alive

5 Secretary birds

No, don’t be fooled by the name, there’s birds are tough and ruthless. It is a bird of prey but unusually it hunts terrestrially, meaning on land, as opposed to flying in from the air. The weapon of choice for secretary birds – who prefer to hunt in pairs—is their feet, as they kill their prey by kicking or stomping it to death. The secretary bird cases prey during the cooler parts of the day, eventually stomping on vegetation to flush them out before their stomping attack.

Native to Africa, secretary birds’ prey consists of insects such as locusts and beetles but also mammals such as mice, hares and mongoose. It’s also claimed that secretary birds sometimes kill snakes, such as cobras with their persistent stomps to the head to kill or immobilize. Secretary bird’s scientific name, Sagittarius serpentarius, translates to ‘the archer of snakes’. When they attack, they spread their wings and raise their feathered crest in a grandiose display of power and intimidation but also distraction, as a snake bite on the feathers won’t hurt the bird given the lack of flesh.^[6]

4 Margay

This solitary and nocturnal small cat, which is native to South and Central America, employs the rare technique of mimicry to lure its prey. The margay hunts small mammals, such as monkeys and squirrels, as well as birds, eggs, lizards and tree frogs while it’s also known to be vegetarian at times.

The margay has been known to vocalise the infant cries of monkeys such as wild pied tamarins. The premise of the vocalization is to attract prey, thus facilitating an attack and reducing the energy expended on the pursuit, improving the margay’s chances of success.^[7]

3 Archer fish

We all played with a ‘super soaker’ water pistol when we were young, but the archer fish took the concept to the next level, by making that its mode of hunting. Archer fish float near the surface and shoot land-based insects from a few metres away with their deadly combination of pinpoint aim and power with water from their mouths. If at first they miss, they are persistent and can actually shot seven streams of water from their mouth at one time.

The archer fish’s name comes from this technique, reflecting their ability to spit an ‘arch’ of water at its prey and they are sharp shooters at that. Found in brackish water habitats, largely in mangroves and estuaries in South East Asia and Northern Australia, archer fish can leap out of the water to attack if their shot doesn’t effectively bring down their prey.

With all this in mind, they’re one of very few animals to utilize tools around them—the water—to hunt.^[8]

2 Glowworms

These illuminated larvae may be pretty on the eye and utilized as a tourist attraction in some parts of New Zealand, but their glow is actually their hunting technique. Glowworms glow through bioluminescence, which is essentially the emission of light generated by a chemical reaction. But the glow is made to draw insects to them. Any insects that get too close to the light get trapped by the glowworms’ large sticky webs found in caves and overhangs where they reside in clusters.

Therefore caves, which are dark and moist, are the perfect hunting ground for glowworms, so they’re usually the best place to find glowworms in action. They may appear to look like worms, but they’re actually beetles or gnats.^[9]

1 Bottlenose dolphins

These sophisticated mammals are even more clever than the TV show ‘Flipper’ let on. The dolphins work as a team when hunting, but one of the strangest techniques they employ is by creating ‘mud nets’ which causes their prey, fish, to jump out of the water and into their waiting mouths.

A dolphin hits the ocean floor with its tails as it swims to stir up the mud on the sea bed and create plumes in the water, before swimming in a circle around a school to fish to create a whirlpooling ring of mud. As a result, the trapped fish try to escape the ring by jumping out of the water, where the dolphins have parked themselves with their mouths wide open awaiting their feed, as captured by BBC Earth.

Bottlenose dolphins have plenty of other hunting techniques including fish whacking and strand feeding, but their mud-ring feeding technique is a highly intelligent strategy.^[10]

Top 10 Surreal Animals That Really Exist

About The Author: I am a Media/Communications professional and long-time Australian freelance journalist, having written for global publications including AAP, Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and many more. Follow me on Twitter @BenSomerford

When it comes to the long list of dangers in this world, many people jump to the more obvious ones. Stepping outside can get you killed by a snakebite in many parts of the world, or if you live in Florida or Australia, you might be attacked by an alligator or crocodile on your afternoon stroll. Tornadoes, fires, drowning, car accidents, and even other people can kill you easily.

But when we think of objects of death, rarely do we stroll into the kitchen, past the knives, and head for the refrigerator or food pantry. But there is actually a long laundry list of regular, run-of-the-mill foods which are absolutely deadly. Here are ten common household foods which can be lethal.

10 Nutmeg

While most of us look at nutmeg and think of it as a spice, a nice little dash of flavor for our coffee or any other food which needs its rich, aromatic, nutty flavor, nutmeg is actually a hallucinogen at higher doses.^[1] Nutmeg can cause dizziness, vomiting, nausea, central nervous system excitation, and even death. It takes about two tablespoons before someone starts feeling the painful and powerful effects of nutmeg, but it’s definitely no joke. It has landed hundreds of people—often looking for a cheap high or good time—in the hospital.

The toxicity of nutmeg is surprisingly high for something sold in grocery stores and found in plenty of spice racks. There’s a surprisingly small margin between the amount that’ll simply spice up your eggnog and the amount that’ll cause toxic effects. It’s powerful enough that it was even historically used as birth control, to terminate unwanted pregnancies, and to fight the Black Death.

9 Apricot Seeds

In the United States, it’s easy to buy whole, raw apricots in the produce section of the grocery store. This is surprising because of the lethality of apricot seeds. They can kill you if you eat them. Apricot seeds contain a chemical called laetrile or amygdalin, which is highly toxic. Many people falsely believe that apricot seeds can cure cancer. They are also ground up and sold as “vitamin B17.”

In the human body, amygdalin is converted into hydrogen cyanide and can kill the person who consumed it.^[2] As we will see, many, many fruit seeds are actually poisonous for one reason or another, but apricot seeds, vitamin B17, laetrile, or whatever you wish to call it, definitely produces cyanide in the gut and can definitely kill you.

8 Almonds

In 2014, Whole Foods had to recall some of its bitter almonds as they contain traces of hydrocyanic acid and glycoside amygdalin, which, when heated or exposed to certain other conditions or chemicals (like the kinds in your digestive system), will be converted to hydrogen cyanide.^[3] That’s right: amygdalin again, just like with the apricot seeds. Both raw almonds and apricot seeds are marketed health products, but both can be deadly when ingested.

Cyanide compounds are actually pretty ubiquitous and plentiful in nature; in fact, if you walked out into nature and just began eating food, many of the things you ate raw could kill you, as is, without human intervention.

7 Potatoes

Glycoalkaloids are a chemical compound that occurs naturally in various plants, such as bittersweet nightshade, a plant related to tomatoes and, believe it or not, potatoes. These plants contain solanine, a chemical which, in large enough doses, is actually toxic. Symptoms of solanine poisoning include nausea, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, and worst of all, respiratory failure, leading to death.

Yes, you can die from eating potatoes.^[4] A grown, 91-kilogram (200 lb) adult would need to consume 0.9 kilograms (2 lb) of fully green potatoes to ingest enough solanine to kill them, which, if you think about it, really isn’t a lot.

6 Tomato Plants

Tomato plants are another potentially lethal plant and also a relative to the bittersweet nightshade plant, as mentioned above. Thus, as logic would deduce, parts of tomato plants are also loaded with glycoalkaloids and possess solanine, with all of the same symptoms as the potato, including vomiting, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness, and, of course, respiratory failure up to and including death.

The good news is that the poison resides in the leaves and vines, not in the tomatoes themselves, so eat as many actual tomatoes as you’d like, to your heart’s desire. Just stay away from the green areas, like the vine the tomato grows on.^[5]

5 Rhubarb

Rhubarb may not be as common as potatoes or tomatoes in our kitchens, but this leafy vegetable—wait, is it a fruit? Well. it is actually a vegetable but is labeled a fruit in America based on a legal ruling in 1947. Regardless, it is often used in cocktails and as a tangy-sweet pie filling. However, the plant’s leaves contain oxalic acid, a chemical also used in household bleach and anti-rust products (oh my!). Oxalic acid occurs naturally in certain foods—leafy greens, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and cocoa. Symptoms of oxalate poisoning include nausea, vomiting, convulsions, and even death. If the leaves of the rhubarb plant are eaten, they can also cause a burning sensation in the mouth and throat. Cooking the leaves will not remove the acid.

The likelihood of dying from eating too much rhubarb is very low. The average lethal dose for oxalic acid is estimated at 170 mg per pound (375 mg per kg) of body weight, which is approximately 26.3 grams for a 154-pound (70-kg) person. This means you would have to eat 10 pounds of rhubarb in one sitting.^[6] So, unless you happen to be addicted to strawberry-rhubarb pie, you’re probably safe!

4 Fugu

Fugu is a dish prepared from pufferfish, which is served as a fancy dinner in many restaurants worldwide but particularly in Japan. Part of the draw is this fish’s toxicity, which makes it a costly item that’s often served more as a garnish in extremely small amounts, tiny slivers of which might kill you. The toxin in question is called tetrodotoxin and is found in parts of the pufferfish, none of which must make it into what’s served to guests. Chefs in Japan must complete two to three years of training to be licensed to prepare fugu.

Tetrodotoxin is 1,200 times deadlier than cyanide. A minuscule amount is enough to bring a grown man to his knees, killing him. Pufferfish generally contain enough tetrodotoxin to kill 30 people. When experiencing fugu poisoning, the mouth begins to burn, along with the tongue, and slow, slurred, drunken speech begins. The heartbeat begins to become irregular before the respiratory system shuts completely down, killing the person who ate too much.^[7] There is no antidote for fugu poisoning, but it isn’t always lethal, and sometimes the victim can be flushed of the remaining poison and survive. Eating fugu is a gamble, but that’s part of the draw for some.

3 Ackee

Ackee is a fruit native to West Africa and is grown in Jamaica as well as parts of the Caribbean. It is a pear-shaped fruit in the same family as lychee and a few thousand other relatives. But ackee can’t be bought raw in the United States as there is a federal ban on importing and selling the fruit. It can be bought canned, but there are strong restrictions on canned importation due to ackee’s potent toxicity.^[8]

If the fruit is not ripened fully, consumption can lead to disastrous results. “Jamaican vomiting sickness” is a name for ackee poisoning, and it sometimes actually kills people. Generalized weakness, dehydration, and confused, crazy, panicked mental states are the initial symptoms, starting two to six hours after consumption. This can quickly progress to seizures, coma, and death. The fruit is definitely not something to mess around with, hence the extremely restrictive ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

2 Cherry Pits

Cherries are a delicious fruit we all know and love, and most of us have grown up with them. There is cherry-flavored just about everything today, from soda to ice cream, but beneath the flesh of a cherry is an extremely lethal pit or seed—and many of us probably remember swallowing them as a child because whole, raw cherries can be purchased at many grocery stores, as is, with the pits included, unlike ackee.

So, what’s the culprit in cherry pits? Amygdalin, yet again, with its hydrogen cyanide potency. For such a lovable fruit, the availability of cyanide, directly on the inside, is pretty astonishing; You shouldn’t just ingest cherries by swallowing them whole, regardless of what cartoons and video games may tell you; it’s extremely dangerous. A man in Lancashire, UK, actually got cyanide poisoning by consuming a mere three cherry pits, which almost ended up killing him.^[9]

1 Apples

Like cherries and apricots, the poison in apples lies in the seeds, but nobody really knows about that. Cyanide toxicity takes place at 0.5 to 3.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, and apple seeds could do the job if you were to eat enough of them. As usual, amygdalin is the culprit, and the resultant cyanide can kill you quickly.

Each apple seed contains about 2 milligrams of amygdalin. Rest assured, however, you would have to consume over 140 apple seeds for it to kill you, which, if you obtained eight seeds per apple, would require about 18 apples. There are 700 milligrams of cyanide in one kilogram of apple seeds.^[10]

I like to write about dark stuff, history, and philosophy.

Depending on your context, the lion is the King of the Jungle—or King of the Forest—even though lions don’t live in jungles and the females do all the hunting and killing. But still: the King. And with the crown comes would-be usurpers. You know, like Scar and his hyenas.

Though most species know their place, rightfully subservient to the royal lion, some have grown bolder. Some would plot to use their size, their venom, and even their spears to claim the throne… and it would totally work. As fast and powerful as lions are, there are a lot of animals that best them in the wild. And though lions technically have no natural predators, there are plenty of animals that will take advantage of superiors numbers, or target the young, old, or sick, to bring down and feast upon a lion. 

Here are ten animals that can, and have, killed lions.

10 Crocodiles

Nile crocodiles are the second-largest reptiles in the world, beaten out only by saltwater crocodiles. Like lions, they are apex predators; no animal actively hunts Nile crocs for food. That’s because no animal is that stupid, not even humans (until guns became available and cheap enough). And even with guns, humans stand little chance of making it out unscathed if a Nile crocodile manages to get a good chomp in. So it’s no surprise that they can, and sometimes do, take on lions.

In fact, there are plenty of recorded attacks from Nile crocs on lions. It’s always through a quick ambush while the lion is drinking from or eating by a waterhole. The sheer number of croc vs. lion attacks forces the question: are lions really apex predators? 

Most ecologists (including yours truly, a former ecologist), would say that yes, lions are still at the apex. Nile crocs only hunt them opportunistically, only when they’re desperate, and always prefer slower prey. But the fact remains that Nile crocs eat lions, which is impressive in any context.

9 Black mambas

You’ve probably heard of black mambas. This is possibly because of Uma Thurman’s character in “Kill Bill,” but more likely because they’re considered the scariest snake in all of Africa. It is the second-largest venomous snake, after the king cobra, and its venom beats the cobra’s both in potency and speed of effect. You can bet that size and venom make even lions fear the mamba, and you’ll be right.

There are multiple recorded cases of black mambas killing lions. The snakes are generally peaceful and only strike when they feel threatened, and likewise, lions know not to tangle with snakes, but no system is perfect. Encounters occur and, as you can see in the embedded video, it doesn’t always go well for the lions.

8 Hyenas

Hyenas have become a bit of a joke. Whether it’s because of their supposed laughter, their famous portrayal by Whoopi Goldberg and Cheech Marin, their reputations as cowardly scavengers, or their, ahem, unusual genitalia, hyenas are often not seen as fierce predators. Well, the butt of the joke is actually pretty fierce when you get a whole bunch of them to work together. They can kill lions. And a lot more often than you’d think.

It is true that one on one, the average lion would trounce the average hyena. It is also true that no single hyena ever hunts a lion. But lions and hyenas often come in conflict over kills, usually due to lions attempting to steal hyenas’ kills (disproving the common belief), and in their close-knit packs, hyenas often emerge victorious over lions. In particular, spotted hyenas, which are the most aggressive species of hyena, tend to ‘mob’ lions, overwhelming them with numbers and aggression. To lions, hyenas are no laughing matter.

7 Rhinos

Rhinos are complicated. On the one hand, they’re some of the easiest poaching targets out there, as they’ll often laze around watering holes as big, motionless targets. On the other hand, they have no natural predators, not even lions, and all of the top predators in their habitats know to avoid them.

In addition to weighing roughly five times as much as lions, rhinos are also extremely territorial. Unlike crocodiles, mambas, and hyenas, which all actively avoid lions, many rhinos will seek out confrontation if their territory is encroached upon. A quick search for rhino lion encounters will show what the charge of an angry rhino can do to a lion. It isn’t pretty.

6 Tigers

This is a weird one, because there is almost no habitat overlap between lions and tigers, with three exceptions. First, their habitats overlapped considerably in the recent past, but overhunting and habitat modification by humans has drastically reduced their habitat ranges. Second, there is still an overlap, albeit small, in India’s Gir forest. The two cats both dwell here, though the two species stay fairly separate.

This brings us to number three: captivity. For thousands of years, the two largest cats have been kept as pets, trophies, attractions, and even as gladiators. In their long history together, the two cats have been pitted against each other again and again. Though opinions are mixed, the general consensus is that tigers, which are larger and pound for pound stronger than lions, are more likely to come out ahead.

5 Elephants

It’s no surprise that elephants, the largest living land animals, can take down lions. From sheer size alone, elephants have no natural predators. Only the youngest and sickest elephants need fear predation, and even then, it’s not a meal most predators would choose.

Indeed, there have been hours and hours of footage captured of scuffles between lions and elephants. Usually, it is territorial disputes with extremely desperate lionesses targeting baby elephants. But it more often than not ends up with injured, retreating lions. Interestingly, a few select prides of lion have taken to hunting elephants, but only with number advantages of roughly 30 to 1.

4 African Buffalo

When you think of African wildlife, you tend to think of anything but the African buffalo, or Cape buffalo. It’s not nearly as famous as the rhino, elephant, hippo, or giraffe. But it’s big, strong, and as mean as can be. That’s why lions only approach buffalo in packs, and even then—the footage speaks for itself.

You’ll be surprised to hear that African buffalo are actually heavier than rhinos on average, longer, and just as tall. In addition, they are famously territorial and generally aggressive, earning the nickname “the widow-maker.” Quoting the Canadian Museum of Nature: “More big game hunters have been killed by African buffalo than by any other African animal… Other than humans, African buffalo have few natural predators and are capable of defending themselves against (and sometimes killing) lions.” Watching a buffalo gore a lion and fight off four others, I’d say that’s an understatement.

3 Hippos

It’s hard to top the African buffalo. In fact, when it comes to megafauna, there’s only one animal in Africa that kills more people (and other animals, not for predation): the hippopotamus. A 2014 ABC News article headline reads: “Hippopotamus attack kills 13 people, including 12 children, in boat near Niger’s capital Niamey.” The hippo flipped the boat and killed 13 of its passengers, one by one.

Lions don’t fare any better. Hippos are considered the most aggressive animal in Africa, and unlucky lions who attempt to feed on young calves often learn that firsthand. Moreover, hippos are aggressive enough to take the offensive. They are commonly known to displace any predators in their territory, whether they are hunting or not, by brute force.

2 Humans

No, this isn’t some conservationist warning about the moral void that is poaching—but poaching is bad. So set aside “poaching,” this is different. The traditional hunting of lions by humans—again, not poaching—has been occurring for thousands of years.

For one, the famous Maasai people of Kenya have hunted lions as a rite of passage for countless generations. Ancient Egypt and Greece also hunted lions, which were more abundant in those areas until modern overhunting (in Greece, they are now completely absent). Most accounts of human lion hunting share common practices, such as using bait, sneak attacks, spears, and scent hounds.

1 Mosquitos

It’s true: mosquitos aren’t the coolest animal, or the biggest, fastest, or strongest. But what they lack in… everything likable, they make up for in deadliness. Mosquitos kill more humans than any other animal, by most estimates 750,000-1,000,000 people every year. That’s not just the most kills, it’s more than the next ten runners-up combined. And their deadliness isn’t limited to humans; almost every animal is affected.

Between the roughly 3,500 different species of mosquitoes, they have evolved to preferentially feed on almost every terrestrial animal imaginable. On top of that, mosquitoes have the potential to carry dozens of major and even fatal illnesses. Some of these diseases infect other animals. Basically: it doesn’t matter if you’re a lion, a crow, a ferret, or a human being—mosquitos can kill you. Proving just how much we hate them.

“Good day everyone. This is your captain speaking. We’ll be leaving the gate shortly for our three-hour flight. The weather looks fine, so we should be looking at a smooth, comfortable ride.”

Well yeah, unless he doesn’t de-ice the wings before takeoff. Or gets disoriented and thinks the ocean is the horizon. Or misses the runway at landing. Or…

Here are ten ways that pilot might kill us all. Please brace for impact.

10 Unbelievable Things That Happened On Airplanes

10 By Never Even Getting on the (Right) Runway

It takes a special pilot to get passengers killed before even attempting a takeoff. On December 3, 1990, at Detroit’s Wayne County Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 – piloted by Captain William Lovelace and First Officer James Schifferns – was set to depart from Pittsburgh with 40 passengers. The day was notable for its dense, low-hanging fog, but nothing the DC-9 couldn’t quickly outclimb.

Departing its gate, Flight 1482 headed for Runway 03C… but instead turned onto another taxiway. To correct the error, they were instructed to make a right to double back. Apparently not satisfied with one dumb mistake, Lovelace and Schifferns instead somehow managed to turn directly onto the active runway.

They realized the mistake and contacted air traffic control, who (duh) told them to leave the runway immediately. Five seconds later, Northwest Flight 299, a Boeing 727 taking off en route to Memphis, came barreling toward them.

The 727’s wing sliced through the right side of Flight 1482, cutting through the fuselage just below the windows. It then chopped off the DC-9’s right engine. Flight 299’s pilot – who, it must be said, performed phenomenally – initiated a rejected takeoff, and stopped the aircraft safely. Its 146 passengers and 8 crew were all unhurt.

The DC-9 caught fire and was destroyed. Seven passengers and one flight attendant died, with another 10 seriously injured. In addition to Lovelace’s culpability, the ensuing investigation criticized the airport’s control tower for “failure to use progressive taxi instructions in low visibility.”

9 By Forgetting to De-Ice the Wings in a Snowstorm

Making sure ice hasn’t accumulated on an airplane’s wings is such a crucial and common occurrence that, even back in the comparably cowboyish 1980s, commercial cockpits contained clearly marked Ice Protection Systems. Unfortunately, Captain Larry M. Wheaton managed to overlook this standard pre-flight checklist item despite more than 8,000 hours of airtime under his belt… and despite the fact that it was snowing.

On the afternoon of January 13, 1982, Washington DC’s National Airport was just reopening after a deluge of the same white stuff currently accruing on the wings of Wheaton’s Air Florida Flight 90, bound for Fort Lauderdale with 74 passengers.

The experienced pilot he was, Wheaton recognized his error shortly after leaving the gate. But instead of returning for proper de-icing, he and First Officer Roger Pettit had a novel idea: to use the exhaust from the plane ahead of them in the takeoff queue to defrost the wings. How resourceful.

The shockingly unsound judgment didn’t stop there. Wheaton decided to proceed with takeoff even after his impromptu de-icing attempt predictably failed—AND after detecting a power problem while taxiing.

Flight 90 took off and began climbing… to about 350 feet. Then it lost lift. The Boeing 737 dropped from the sky and slammed into an overpass before plunging into the Potomac River. Seventy passengers and four crew members died, including both pilots. Four motorists on the ground also were killed. Only five survivors were plucked by helicopter from the frigid river, though as many as 19 likely survived the initial crash.

8 By Turning the Plane into a High-speed Bus

On August 20, 2008, Captain Antonio Garcia Luna and First Officer Francisco Javier Mulet did everything right, then everything wrong. Unfortunately, the latter was irredeemable.

SpanAir Flight 5022 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying 166 passengers and six crew from Barcelona to Madrid. It was scheduled to leave an hour earlier than it did, as the pilots had wisely abandoned a departure due to an excessive reading from the ram air temperature (RAT) probe. The aircraft was taken to a parking area, where maintenance workers deactivated the RAT probe’s heater, which was fine since no ice buildup would occur on a fair-weather August day in Spain.

Then Luna and Mulet BOTH forgot to deploy the flaps and slats required for takeoff. Without these “high-lift” devices, the wings could not generate enough lift to keep the aircraft airborne. It didn’t help that the warning system malfunctioned, failing to alert the crew of their mission-critical mistake.

Flight 5022 left the ground momentarily, rolled sharply to the right, and smashed into the ground beside the runway. The wings separated and the fuselage snapped into two parts, the larger of which was engulfed by fire. The asinine accident killed 154 people. Only 18 survived.

7 By Not Being in the Cockpit

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 took off from Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro Airport en route to Paris. The Airbus A330 was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew – including three flight-trained officers rather than the typical two. The flight comprised 13 hours of duty, and Air France’s policy was that pilots can serve no more than ten hours before taking a break. The extra First Officer allowed for two qualified personnel to fly the plane at all times.

Captain Marc DuBois took the mid-flight break shift, while the plane was over the Atlantic Ocean. Just 15 minutes later, First Officer David Robert summoned him back. During his brief absence, the plane had entered turbulent airspace and was also accruing wing ice.

The plane had begun to stall, and the two pilots – neither of whom were captains – reacted incorrectly. Just before DuBois reentered the cockpit, co-First Officer Pierre-Cédric Bonin exclaimed: “[Expletive] I don’t have control of the airplane any more now!”

DuBois’ first words upon returning were not encouraging. Noticing the various alarms going off, he asked, “er… what are you (doing)?” The aircraft had its nose above the horizon but was descending steeply.

Soon after this, Robert said “climb” four consecutive times. Bonin replied, “But I’ve been at maximum nose-up for a while!” When Captain Dubois heard this, he realized Bonin was causing the stall, and shouted, “No, don’t climb! No! No! No!” Flight 447 crashed into the ocean, killing everyone aboard. Had a Captain-level pilot been in the cockpit, it never would have happened.

6 By the Co-Pilot Hitting One Wrong Button

It should be far harder to kill 264 people than 26-year-old First Officer Chuang Meng-jung’s simple error. On April 26, 1994, he and Captain Wang Lo-chi were in the home stretch of China Airlines Flight 140 from Taipei, Taiwan to Nagoya, Japan. The flight had been uneventful, and the Airbus A300 was descending into Nagoya on time and at a safe angle.

That all changed just three miles from the runway. At an altitude of 1,000 feet, First Officer Meng-jung inadvertently selected the takeoff/go-around setting, which at that height is instructing the plane’s aircraft’s autopilot to increase the throttles for a second pass at an landing.

The crew reacted by manually reducing the throttles and pushing the yoke forward. But the autopilot, acting on the inadvertent go-around command, countered by increasing its own efforts to overcome the pilot’s actions. It moved the horizontal stabilizer to a full nose-up position.

Still unaware of the autopilot’s go-around command, the crew then independently decided to go-around. The result was a compounded action that raised the plane’s nose far too high. The steep pitch caused an aerodynamic stall, and Flight 140 dropped like a brick. Only seven of the plane’s 271 occupants lived.

5 By Crashing into Another Bad Pilot in Midair

What are the chances, right? Well apparently, up until the mid-1950s they were quite good. Then one collision led to much-needed changes.

On June 30, 1956, a TWA Super Constellation and a United DC-7, carrying a combined 128 people, collided over the Grand Canyon in Arizona at 21,000 feet. The TWA plane’s tail was sheared off, while most of the United flight’s left wing was severed.

The TWA Super Constellation plunged in a near-vertical dive, crashing onto a plateau 300 feet above the Colorado River. The United DC-7 sputtered another mile or so before slamming into a butte and careening into a rugged gulch. Everyone perished.

It doesn’t seem difficult for two planes to avoid each other in the air (especially in the less crowded skies of the mid-20th Century), but such midair massacres had become a trend. A 1956 “Aviation Week” article noted that, between 1948 and 1955 there were 127 midair collisions in the US, 30 of which involved commercial airliners.

In the aftermath of the TWA-United disaster, investigators determined that, although the pilots had simply failed to see each other (really? HOW?), America’s antiquated air traffic control system was also a factor. Fallout from the accident led directly to the 1957 formation of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

4 By Getting Distracted By a Spent Lightbulb

It‘s a bit harsh to call the crew of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 dim bulbs, but this might be the flat-out stupidest reason a commercial airliner ever crashed.

On December 29, 1972, Flight 401 – a Lockheed TriStsr carrying 163 passengers and 13 crew members from NYC’s John F. Kennedy Airport – was beginning its approach into Miami. Upon lowering the landing gear, First Officer Albert Stockstill noticed that the gear indicator – a green light confirming the nose gear is locked in place – had not illuminated.

There were three trained commercial aviators on the flight: First Officer Stockstill, Flight Engineer Donald Repo, and Captain Robert Loft, a 32-year veteran. Loft told the Miami flight tower about the landing gear situation, and received permission to go into a holding pattern at 2,000 feet. He sent Repo down to the avionics bay to report on the landing gear’s position, then told Stockstill to engage the autopilot while they removed the light assembly.

Only the autopilot was on the wrong setting. Instead of circling at a steady altitude, it descended so gradually that noone noticed until the plane crashed into the Everglades.

Loft’s final words, recorded 10 seconds before the crash, were “Hey, what’s happening here?” Oh nothing, Captain. You’re just getting everyone killed because none of the three pilots are looking out the goddamned window.

101 people died. The landing gear indicator issue was later determined to be a simple burned-out bulb. And even if it wasn’t, the gear could have been lowered manually.

3 By Blowing the Beginning of the Landing

Despite the comparative complexity of the landing process, modern cockpit instruments significantly simplify its execution, making both approach and touchdown as automated as possible. Such tools have helped make air travel the safest means of transportation.

Unless, of course, the pilot misuses them.

On February 9, 2009, Captain Marvin Renslow and a scarily young First Officer, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, were beginning their descent into Buffalo, New York on Colgan Air Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey. The Bombardier Dash-8 was carrying 49 passengers – a packed flight for the relatively small commercial aircraft.

Upstate New York is frigid in winter, and the airline’s policy called for landings to be performed manually in conditions likely to cause ice accumulation on wings. Despite this, Renslow kept the plane on autopilot as it slowed for landing. And slowed. And slooowed… until the shaker stick, a warning system intended to jolt the pilot to attention, warned of an impending midair stall.

Renslow – who should have already been manually guiding the aircraft – responded by abruptly pulling back on the control column and increasing thrust to 75% power – neither of which was right. The proper stall recovery technique is lowering the nose and applying full power. Flight 3407 pitched up, down, left and then rolled violently right. It crashed into a house and burst into flames, killing everyone on board and one on the ground.

Notably, the flight became a rallying call for pilots to receive more rest between flights, as fatigue was among the factors blamed for Renslow’s deadly mistakes.

2 By Blowing the Middle of the Landing

Nearly half of all fatal crashes happen during final descent and landing, by far the most dangerous leg. As the plane descends, the most important job for a pilot is to ensure the aircraft’s angle and alignment head directly onto the runway. On September 27, 1977, the captain of Japan Airlines Flights 715 was attempting to do just that as the plane approached Malaysia’s Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport.

The weather was poor, so Flight 715 was on a VOR approach, which provides lateral guidance until the plane reaches its MDA, or Minimum Descent Altitude. From there, pilots are instructed to maintain that altitude until the runway comes into view. The idea is to get below the cloud cover – but not so far below that the aircraft is endangered.

Flight 715’s MDA was 750 feet. Landing gear down and flaps extended, the DC-8 jet dropped to 750 feet. Then it kept dropping. At 300 feet, it crashed into a hill four miles from the airport. The plane broke apart and burst into flames. Incredibly, only 34 of the 79 people aboard perished.

The cause of the crash was simple: the pilot descended below his minimum descent altitude without having the runway in sight. Instead of aborting the approach and circling back, the pilot took the plane to a height of a medium-sized Manhattan office building. Investigators also blamed the First Officer for doing nothing to stop this flagrant procedural violation.

1 By Blowing the End of the Landing

Plenty of deadly crashes occur just as planes touch down – typically because they over- or under-shoot the runway. However, a deadly landing accident last year occurred for an especially unusual reason.

On May 22, 2020, Pakistani International Airlines Flight 8303 was descending into Karachi from Lahore, carrying 91 passengers and eight crew members. The Airbus A320’s descent was abnormally abrupt, unnerving air traffic controllers as the plane approached the runway.

Then “unnerved” turned to “mortified.” Captain Sajjad Gul and First Officer Usman Azam were about to land without landing gear despite the multitude of procedures and warnings designed to prevent exactly that.

“It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus, with all the warning systems, would attempt to land the plane without the gear extended,” said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant. The plane’s two engines grinded along the runway at speeds exceeding 200mph – 40mph faster than an Airbus should land, with or without wheels.

Amazingly, the pilots were able to re-ascend away from the airport… but only briefly. The plane lost power (maybe it was that whole engines-grinding-the-pavement-at-high-speeds thing) and crashed into a nearby neighborhood, killing one person on the ground. Only two passengers lived.

10 Most Unexpected Plane-Related Incidents To Happen In Recent Times

Death in itself isn’t that surprising. After all, all of us have to go one way or another. From car accidents to peacefully passing in your sleep to foolishly challenging a stronger person to a duel to the death, there’s no dearth of potential ways one may pass away. The ways we die are as numerous and varied as there are people on Earth, making death a rather common and widespread phenomenon. 

It is surprising, however, when people end up dying to everyday things that we never thought could be fatally dangerous. Most of these common things that could potentially kill you seem harmless on first look, until you look up the science and statistics behind them.

8. Air Fresheners

Air fresheners are so common around the world that they can easily go unnoticed in most backgrounds. They’re quite widely used during certain times of the year, too, especially in the colder countries where people tend to stay inside during the winters. 

What we don’t know, though, is that air fresheners could be giving us cancer. Limonene, a chemical found in quite a few types of air fresheners, can react with the air to form formaldehyde, which has been known as a carcinogen since at least 2011. According to one study conducted on six households in York, the amount of formaldehyde in the air of an average house may just be high enough to be a concern. Thankfully – as the same researchers noted – it could also be almost completely absorbed by certain types of houseplants (if we could keep them alive for more than one day, that is). 

7. Boredom

Boredom affects many people around the world. In fact, we’d bet that a whole chunk of the human population is sitting at home with nothing to do at this very moment. It’s a big enough problem that we spend a large part of our lives trying to do things so as to not get bored, though not big enough to get the sciences involved. That is, of course, until you look up the numbers.

One study found that workers who reported being bored at work were around 2.5 times more likely to die of a heart attack in their later years than the others. For perspective, smoking raises the chances of developing a heart disease by about two to four times. It may sound surprising, but if you consider that when you’re bored, you’re also less likely to make productive life choices and stay healthy, it makes perfect sense. 

6. Doing Nothing

You’d think that doing absolutely nothing would drastically reduce your chances of dying a premature death. It stands to reason that if you’re doing absolutely nothing at all, you’re not doing anything that could kill you. If we look at the science, though, that assumption doesn’t hold up.

Apparently, lack of physical activity could be causing as many deaths worldwide as smoking and obesity. It considerably raises the chances of getting a wide range of diseases, like breast cancer, Type 2 diabetes, colon cancer and coronary heart disease. That’s not it; if we could completely eradicate physical inactivity, the average life expectancy could be raised by 0.68 years. 

5. The Television

We have been around televisions long enough to make them safe to handle. Sure, the huge TV sets from a few decades ago could be a potential cause for injury, though we wouldn’t assume the same for the sleek and light televisions of today.

That assumption would be correct, except if you have a kid in the house. As per a study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 11,000 children under 18 were sent to the emergency room for injuries from television sets tipping over between 2011-2013, usually along with other heavy furniture. More surprisingly, from 2000 to 2013, 279 people lost their lives to their TV sets.

4. Going To The Loo

If we asked you to guess the most dangerous places in an average household in terms of deaths per year, you’d probably pick the garage, or even the kitchen. While it’s true that both of those places are responsible for their fair share of casualties, they’re not the most dangerous. 

If the numbers are anything to go by, the bathroom is actually the most dangerous place in the house, and there are multiple ways it could kill you, too. According to one study by the Scripps Howard News Service, one American dies from drowning in their bathtub almost every day. For older people, simply slipping and falling down could be fatal. If that’s not enough, quite a few people die because of hot water burns, too, making you wonder if just not going to the bathroom unless you really need to is the safest bet after all. 

3. Drinking Water

Water is – without any exaggeration – the biggest driving factor behind the evolution of life on Earth. Almost every type of organism we know of is water-based – including us – which would lead you to assume that consuming any amount of it would be safe… or at least not fatal.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case, as it turns that drinking too much water could lead to some serious health problems, too. Too much water can dissolve the electrolytes in the blood stream – especially sodium. Sodium helps keep the balance of the fluids inside and outside the cell. If depleted too much, it can allow external fluids to enter the cells, which can prove to be fatal in the case of brain cells. 

2. Scarves

Clothing items and accessories are probably the last group of things you’d expect to cause injury, let alone outright death. After all, there are stringent safety checks that ensure comfort and safety, and – unless you’re bent on it – there aren’t many ways that you could use them to cause injury. There’s, of course, just one exception: scarves.

Scarves are – by far – the most dangerous of all items of clothing, apparent by just how many people die due to their scarves getting entangled in the wrong place at the wrong time. Quite a few of you may have heard of Isadora Duncan, a dancer from Nice, France, as well as only one of the many victims of the deadly scarf. She died due to her scarf getting stuck between the wheels of her car while she was driving. Then there’s the woman from India who died pretty much the same way, except it was an elevator instead of a car. These aren’t isolated cases, either, as there are many other people that have ended up paying with their life for merely wanting to look a bit more fabulous that particular day. It makes sense, too, as scarves are usually long and flowy, making them more prone to getting stuck in things like heavy machinery, or even cars; something most of us use on a regular basis. 

1. Lilies

Houseplants are, without a doubt, one of the cheapest and most sustainable ways to do up your house. It adds a hint of life to an otherwise dead space, which our modern concrete buildings tend to be despite our best efforts. They’re also quite good at keeping the air purified and free of harmful chemicals like carcinogens, and all they need to do all that is just exist in the same space as you.

Of course, as you’d have probably guessed, there are some houseplants that can cause irreparable harm if ingested or touched, too, and some can even kill you. Case in point: lilies. Almost all of the common lily varieties found in an average household can cause irritation, rashes, stomach issues and other reactions if ingested. Both lily of the valley and gloriosa lily, for some examples, can cause serious symptoms like shortness of breath, numbness of the mouth, paralysis, and even death.