You wake up and crawl out of bed. It’s a chilly morning. You hit the bathroom and get the coffee to brewing. Then you take a peek out the window – and see nothing but white.
There’s been a major snowfall overnight!
You stifle a groan – or maybe you don’t stifle it. Because now you have a porch that needs to be cleared of snow. Sidewalks that need clearing. A big driveway that needs clearing.
And snow clearing is about the last thing that you feel like doing right now. Unfortunately, it could end up literally the very last thing that you do.
The Stats Are Sobering
As you probably already know, lots of people die in the act of performing snow removal chores every winter. It’s almost an epidemic of sorts. Hundreds of people every year suffer cardiac events that occur as a result of snow removal efforts.
According to a recent study, nearly 200,000 people were hospitalized as a result of snow removal activities from 1990 to 2006. It’s not unusual for just a single snowstorm to result in several deaths caused by snow removal activities. On average, about 100 people die from snow removal activities in the U.S. every year.
Why Is Snow Removal So Dangerous?
What makes snow removal such a dangerous activity? Experts say that it’s mostly because of a perfect storm of deadly causal factors:
- Snow shoveling puts a massive strain on the heart – particularly dangerous for people that are elderly, overweight, or that lead sedentary lifestyles
- Snow removal activities often occur in the early morning when cardiac events are statistically more likely to occur
- Snow shoveling works the arms heavier than the legs, which tends to be more taxing upon the heart
- The cold air works to constrict blood vessels, increasing the likelihood of a cardiac event
Snow shoveling is so risky, in fact, that some experts recommend that people over the age of 55 avoid it entirely, regardless of their physical condition.
Just Part of the Reason That Snow Removal Services Are So Popular
The physical risk of performing snow removal is part of what makes snow removal services – like TLC’s snow removal insurance – so popular in recent years. More people than ever are aware of those risks, and they’re happy to pay a little to remove that risk from their lives.
But the physical risk isn’t the only reason that snow removal services are doing big business these days. After all, not many people are thrilled about bundling up, trudging outside, and starting the day with a bone-chilling, back-breaking round of snow removal activities.
If simply avoiding all that drudgework is what you have in mind when you sign-up for snow removal services, that’s perfectly understandable. But the fact that you might also be avoiding sudden death by letting a service handle your snow removal chores? That’s a pretty good bonus!