In hopes of assisting Mr. Dunkin with his municipal
problem, let me reveal part of an article that I am
not yet done writing on "suburban beekeeping".

Can someone please forward or snail-mail this to him?

The section that I call "Oh Death, Where Is Thy Sting?"
may be of interest.  This basic question has remained
unanswered since the earliest Bibles were being copied
by monks (I Corinthians 15:55).

The reason that the question remains unanswered is that
it is hard to find the sting in death, as there are very
few deaths from stings.

In 2000 (the most recent year for which data has been
reported to the World Health Organization) 54 people
died in the USA due to encounters" with ANY type of
stinging insect (wasps, bees, hornets, yellowjackets...).
This number is sure to include some number of deaths due
to insects other than bees, and can also be assumed to
include a certain number of deaths from "Africanized" Bees,
something that is expected to never become an issue in Ohio
by those who do AHB research.

In Canada, 2 people died in 2000.
Canada has no "Africanized" Bees, but has about the same
percentage of their population keeping bees in suburban
and urban areas as in the USA.  Canada is thereby a better
model than the USA for how "risky" bees are if one wants to
eliminate the "Africanized" bee factor, which would be
reasonable for places like Ohio.

When you look at mortality versus population, the odds of
dying from the sting of any/all insects in any one year are:

  USA  -   1 in  5,555,556
  Canada - 1 in 16,666,667

In contrast, there are many many other things that are much
more dangerous and kill many more people every year.  Things
that are much more within the legitimate regulatory grasp of
a municipality than bees, and things that can be controlled
by a municipality.  Lots of things kill more many people.
Things like WALKING DOWN THE STREET!

In the USA:

  What Killed           Deaths    Odds of
  People                in 2000   1 in
  -----------------     -------   ---------
  Pedestrian Hit By:
    Passenger Vehicle   3101       93,633
    Truck/Bus            295      990,099
    Train                449      649,351
  Stairways             1307      222,222
  Slip/Trip On Level     565      515,464
  Fall Involving Bed     450      649,351


                         How many times
                         more risk of death
  What                   than from stings in USA?
  -----------------      ------------------------
  Pedestrian Hit By:
   Passenger Vehicle     59.3
   Truck/Bus              5.6
   Train                  8.6
  Stairways              25.0
  Slip/Trip On Level     10.8
  Fall Involving Bed      8.6


In Canada:
                                                    Times More
                          Died In         Odds  Risky Than
                          2000    1 in  Stings?
                      ------- ---------   ---------
Pedestrian Hit By:
 Passenger Vehicle      209     154,321    108.0
 Truck/Bus                     28   1,162,791     14.3
 Train                 32   1,010,101     16.5
Stairways                     236         136,612    122.0
Slip/Trip On Level       85       380,228     43.8
Fall Involving Bed       62       520,833     32.0

So, if the town fathers want to ban something to protect
those who are unable to protect themselves, they need to
start with a ban on walking down the street, all passenger
vehicles, all stairways, and all walking on level surfaces.

Note that the bus is much safer, so everyone will have to
take the bus everywhere, even if the journey would only be
a few steps.  Busses can't go up stairways very well, so
they will also have to mandate elevators for all multi-story
buildings.

When they are done with that, the next logical item to
ban would be either beds or trains.  (No idea what to
do about beds ON trains, but one might jump to the
conclusion that they would be much more risky than
either one alone.)

Since all the items listed above are common in nearly every
town, they are a much more serious risk to the ENTIRE
POPULATION rather than a risk to one person who was dealt a
bad genetic hand, yet has made no effort to obtain a readily-
available cure for the affliction.

Moreover, municipalities can impose bans on things like walking
and passenger vehicles and expect to be able to enforce them.
In contrast, a "ban" on beehives within the municipal limits is
easy to prove as "useless, ineffective, and providing no tangible
amount of additional protection", even to the one person who has
an illness that they refuse to treat.

Stinging insects fly where they wish.  Just try to stop them.
Controls for bees don't work.  Bees tend to be oblivious to
political boundaries.  Yellowjackets and wasps would be nearly
impossible to eradicate, making any "ban" on bees even more useless.

As another sanity check and point of reference, in 2000, 65 people died
in the USA of food poisoning ("gastroenteritis of presumed infectious origin")
in Canada, 13 people died in 2000.

Is this the "quiche of death"?.


                jim

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