The Sand vs. Shark Study

Many outlets have picked up the story about sand being more deadly than sharks. For example, see the Daylife pages about it. Just about all of the headlines, and most of the stories themselves, focus on the fact that sand holes have killed more people than sharks over the same period of time.
Admittedly, this whole topic is silly.

However, focusing on sand being more deadly than sharks makes it even sillier.

1. More people are around sand, during more times of the year, than are ever around sharks.
2. Fine, sand is dangerous -- why not make that the focus of the story? If you don't think that the danger of sand is a big enough story on it's own, then comparing it to shark attacks barely masks that fact.
3. The study being used as the foundation of the story is about the dangers of sand holes, not about the nondanger of shark attacks.

Note: Here's a link to an extract of the actual study, subscribers to the New England Journal of Medicine can see it in full here.