Probe into Japanese bathtub fatalities after 14,000 die in one year

Telegraph ^ | 4-30-12

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

Japan's health ministry is to launch an investigation into bath-time fatalities after it was estimated that 14,000 people die every year in the tub - three times as many as those who died in car accidents.

According to the figures, 4,612 people died as a result of traffic accidents across the nation in 2011.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced the first nation-wide study into bath fatalities after a number of local authorities began collecting statistics that point to a high number of victims being elderly.

The high number of bath deaths can be traced back to the role the bath plays in Japanese families and society. The ritual of bathing in Japan is less about washing but more about relaxing at the end of the working day and, in more traditional communities and older buildings, keeping warm in the winter.

Local authorities' data suggests most of the deaths were attributable to drowning, heart palpitations, heart attacks and subarachnoid haemorrhages, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

The numbers rose significantly in the winter months, when older people move from a warm part of their home to the bathroom and suffer "thermal shock."

The government was asked to look into the problem by a number of domestic organisations devoted to bathing and the effects on health, including the Japanese Society of Balneology, Climatology and Physical Medicine, and to support research that will reduce the number of deaths caused by taking a bath.

Authorities are being urged to draw up guidelines on how to take a bath safely...

[GeorgeWashingtonsGhost]

Shorter bath tubs for shorter people?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Democrats would salivate at having this problem to solve.

Think of how intrusive they could justify getting!

[equaviator]

Bathtub tsunamis?

[Hardraade]

Crocodiles in the plumbing...

[Secret Agent Man]

All these bath deaths. Maybe we need to rush a few emergency shipments of adhesive duckies there.

Actually I don’t know why they are wasting time on this when the radiation over there is going to kill them off far sooner than even this many bathtub deaths a year. Considering the two types of deaths, the bathtub death may be preferable.

[Lady Lucky]

Well if it is one of those steeping tubs three feet deep I am not surprised. You can boil like a frog in those things.

[trisham]

I wonder if the water temperature is too high.

[twhitak]

14,000 people die every year in the tub - three times as many as those who died in car accidents

Solution: They should take baths in their cars.

[TurboZamboni]

new low water tubs to be mandated. cost=$2000 per tub.

formerly known as...a bucket.

[Lady Lucky]

If you’re going to die au bain, I recommend those old-fashioned needle showers. Go tickled to death.

[Lady Lucky]

Crocodiles in the plumbing...

That or the Charlotte Corday Society is on the march.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

They should mandate bath tub life preservers.

It would have saved Whitney!!!!!

[bgill]

Ban bathing.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

new low water tubs to be mandated. cost=$2000 per tub. formerly known as... a bucket.

Too dangerous.

58 children drowned in 5-gallon buckets in 2002 alone.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml02/02169.html

[null and void]

Limit them to 1.6 gallons per bath </Al Gore>

[PLMerite]

“Bathtub tsunamis?”

Good name for a band.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

They need to make sure the tubs are grounded before plugging them in.

[Daffynition]

For once I have the origin of the photo; I think there was a thread about it from Valentine's Day.....Spluch offers up news of this chocolate bath which is available to patrons of a hot springs spa resort in Hakone, west of Tokyo, Japan. This is not the first time this spa has been featured on Spluch; before, it's been noticed offering other baths, of wine, Japanese sake, green tea and coffee. They note:

The water in the bath is mixed with cacao and fragrant bath powders while chocolate in its liquid form is poured over the bodies of the bathers. Couples can have fun smearing the chocolate over each others' bodies or lick it off.

[equaviator]

Sure would...that or a homemade specialty drink.