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These steps involve a national assault on three kinds of death for which U.S. rates are shockingly high: homicides, accidents and infant mortality. All three exercise a particularly cruel and unneeded form of population control that debilitates the nation. Reason: they strike the young, people who otherwise would have their most productive and creative years ahead of them. To make the nation a healthier, safer place in which to live the U.S. could:
REDUCE THE RATE OF HOMICIDES. Homicides are more common by far in the U.S. than in any other industrial nation except France; there were 15,800 in 1970 alone. Many of the victims were young; homicide is the second highest cause of death among people aged 15 to 24. Psychologists can argue over the reasons for the large number of U.S. homicides: the frontier tradition, the explosive tensions of the ghetto, the fanning of violence through TV and film. But one fact is indisputable—most homicides involve guns. And guns are shockingly easy and cheap for any murder-minded malcontent to buy. Since the turn of the century, more than 800,000 Americans have been killed by privately owned guns. The yearly toll is now 21,000, which includes 8,000 homicides by handguns as well as suicides and gun accidents. Certainly if the U.S. adopted a strict and sensible federal gun-control law, homicides would decline substantially.
IMPROVE ITS INDUSTRIAL SAFETY. The U.S. has a scandalously bad record in this area. On-the-job accidents caused 14,200 deaths last year; in addition, 2,300,000 workers suffered disabling injuries on the job, and some of the victims will undoubtedly die prematurely as a result. These numbers could be reduced if the Government forced the states to adopt stricter laws to prevent such accidents. Federal law should control not only dangerous tools and machines but also cancer-inducing chemical fumes and asbestos particles. Congress last year put into effect a new Occupational Safety and Health Act. While the act is a move in the right direction, it is underfunded and underenforced, and should be toughened.
REDUCE ITS AUTOMOBILE FATALITY RATE BY AT LEAST ONE-HALF. Auto accidents are the leading cause of death of American children, teen-agers and adults under 25, and the third highest cause of death among people aged 25 to 44. Since the auto was invented, it has killed 1,800,000 Americans, more than in all the nation's wars. Last year's toll was 55,000. At present rates, one out of 40 living Americans will some day be killed by a car.
That rate could be cut if the states would pass laws making the wearing of seat belts obligatory. Local police would enforce the law, passing out summonses to drivers or riders caught unbelted. Crash-injury experts estimate that auto deaths could be reduced by at least one-third if everybody used seat belts all the time. Only a minority of drivers do so now. Further, tough federal standards should be enacted for the licensing of drivers. Some states and localities are inexcusably casual in granting licenses to obvious incompetents. Children of 14, mental defectives, drug addicts and even people collecting aid-to-the-blind payments can get licenses in many states. Most drivers are tested only once in a lifetime, under ideal conditions at low speeds. Undoubtedly a federal law should require periodic tests and stricter standards.