Buy a Kitchen Knife Now! In spite of the way it looks, that's not actually a pitch to purchase kitchen knives. It's the title of a thread on the General Health Topics forum in the HSI Healthier Talk community. And it's also a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor from a member named Jo who spotted an intriguing article in the UK where she lives. Jo writes: "I think this is health-related as it concerns kitchen and cooking activities. See what our crazy medics are doing now." Some doctors - or "crazy medics" if you will - in the UK have called for the ban of long, pointed kitchen knives due to the increased number of violent crimes that are committed with this type of knife. Three doctors from West Middlesex University Hospital in London are apparently heading up the drive for this ban, pointing out that kitchen knives are too accessible, "making it unnecessary to look for another lethal weapon." They seem believe that when the passion for violence is running high and no steak knives are in the silverware drawer, a potential assailant will just shrug his shoulders and let bygones be bygones. Jolly good! Here's a response from a member named Rosie: "Jo, Please send a copy of this to those idiots at that hospital to let them know that they are more dangerous than guns or KNIVES." The "copy of this" Rosie refers to is a batch of statistics that starts with these numbers that (we're told) are supplied by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: (A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.
(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000.
(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171. The second set of statistics apparently comes from the Federal Bureau of Investigation: (A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. Yes, that is 80 million.
(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.
(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188. Rosie goes on: "Statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners. FACT: Not everyone has a gun, but almost everyone has at least one doctor! Please alert your friends to this alarming threat immediately. We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!" I hope our HSI members who are doctors will appreciate this gentle jab. Meanwhile, UK members might want to take Jo's advice: Buy a Kitchen Knife Now! Once the sale of those knives is banned it will be very difficult to cut meat, slice vegetables or launch a violent attack. Other topics being discussed this week in the Healthier Talk community forums include: Energy: Coconut oil
Hearing: Ear candling?
Vision: Wheat free with greatly improved vision
General Health Topics: Raw milk: healthy or just healthier?
Cancer: Melanoma - new patient here
Hormones: Hypothyroid | 
