The two-decades-old opioid crisis savaging the entire United States remains the biggest killer of Americans and it's getting worse every year.
In a new report about the opioid crisis, the National Safety Council (NSC) revealed that Americans now have a 1 in 96 chance of dying from an opioid overdose. This statistic also means that for the first time in U.S. history, the leading cause of deaths (vehicle crashes) has been surpassed by opioid overdoses, said NSC. NSC is a nonprofit, public service organization promoting health and safety in the USA.
On the other hand, the probability of dying in a motor vehicle crash is 1 in 103. The other leading causes of death in the U.S. are heart disease (1 chance in 6) and cancer (1 chance in 7).
America's opioid crisis is fueling NSC's grim predictions, and this crisis is worsening with an influx of illicit fentanyl, said NSC in a statement.
The opioid crisis is impacting the U.S. workforce and impacting fathers and mothers who are still raising their children, said Ken Kolosh, NSC manager of statistics. Kolosh said those accidental deaths usually affect people in the "core of their life," with greater financial and emotional ramifications than deaths of those in their later years.
Fentanyl is the drug most often responsible for drug overdose deaths, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Most of the fentanyl sold in the U.S. comes from China, hence the nickname "China Girl" given to this drug.
Opioids accounted for 49,000 of the 72,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2017. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death of Americans under 50 years-old. Two-thirds of these deaths are caused by opioids. In 2017, the crisis decreased the overall life expectancy of Americans for the third straight year.
Opioids are a broad class of moderately strong painkillers. It includes oxycodone (commonly sold under the trade names OxyContin and Percocet); hydrocodone (Vicodin, Norco), and fentanyl, a very strong painkiller. Fentanyl was the drug that killed the famous rockstar, TAFKAP (or Prince) and Michael Jackson.
NSC has recommended tackling the opioid epidemic by increasing pain management training for opioid prescribers; making the potentially lifesaving drug naloxone more widely available and expanding access to addiction treatment.
NSC also released data showing the odds of dying from a certain event.
* An American's likelihood of dying in a "cataclysmic storm" is 1 in 31,394.
* The odds of dying as an airplane passenger is 1 in 188,364.
* The odds of dying in a fall is 1 in 119 (an increase).
