Disturbing Facts for Kids

A List of Disturbing Facts

This web page contains disturbing facts for kids, parents, teachers and anyone who wants to be disturbed by some true facts. Our goal is to provide you with disturbing, but accurate facts on a wide variety of topics. In addition to facts that will disturb you, we provide additional resources to help you find more facts that are disturbing.

We gathered the below disturbing facts to help you learn about things that are disturbing, but true. We cover a wide variety of topics and continuously keep adding new facts that will disturb you. If you’re easily disturbed or have a medical condition that can be affected by being disturbed, we recommended you avoid reading the below disturbing facts.

If any of the below disturbing facts are inaccurate, please contact us and let us know.

 

8 Disturbing Facts for Kids

  1. Many American’s think the food they eat is safe and clean. This is true, the FDA created the Defect Level Handbook to ensure food doesn’t contain unsafe levels of contaminates. Think about that, it’s the “unsafe levels”, meaning there are acceptable levels. For example, a single can of pineapple can contain up to 20% moldy fruit. The popular food seasoning oregano can have up to 1,250 insect fragments per 10 grams. A pound of cinnamon can have up to 1 milligram of animal feces. Those maraschino cherries you love, 5% of their volume can contain maggots. Yes, the FDA keeps you safe from “unsafe levels” of contaminates, but there still some disgusting stuff in your food.
  2. The Transportation Security Administration, commonly called the TSA, provides security and screening at airports in the United States. The TSA was created in response to the September 11th attacks in 2011. Their primary goal is to prevent weapons and explosives getting on an airplane. In 2017, the DHS used undercover agents to try and smuggle various weapons past the TSA. The results were not very promising, they failed to discover 70% of the weapons the undercover agents tried to smuggle past the TSA. Undercover agents who were physically trying to hide and bring weapons on an airplane were successful 7 out of 10 times. Think about that the next time the TSA finds your bigger than allowed shampoo bottle and makes you throw it out.
  3. Chicken is one of the most popular protein sources in the United States. This means poultry farming is big business in the USA. Billions, yes billions, of chickens are hatched annually to meet the demands of consumers. One thing poultry business quickly realized is male chickens (roosters) aren’t profitable. Roosters cannot produce eggs and they grow to slow to be used for meat. Therefore, billions of male chickens are culled (killed) every year using a macerator (grinder). Commercial chicken hatcheries can determine the sex of chicks (baby chickens) when they’re a day old. This means billions of roosters are killed every year before they’re even 48 hours old.
  4. Do you ever have the feeling that you’re being watched? You might want to take that seriously, because research shows that humans have a primal gaze detecting system. The human brain can tell the difference if another person is looking directly at you or looking in your general direction. This is an evolutionary advantage that would allow you detect and incoming threat. Some people call it a sixth sense, but it’s just evolution at its finest. The real disturbing part is what do you next time your alone in the dark and you feel someone starring at you.
  5. The United States is the richest and most prosperous country in the world. However, there are still between 500,000 to one million homeless people in the United States. The large range is based on how some people classify homeless. At the same time, there are over 17 million vacate homes in the United States for one reason or another. Let’s assume the higher number is accurate and there are one million homeless people. This means the United States has 14 vacate homes for every single homeless person. Why do America’s continue to sleep on the street, in some cases in below zero temperatures when there are so many vacant homes?
  6. Billions of people fly on airplanes every year. Commercial aviation is the number one method used by people to travel across countries and the globe. The next time you’re on an airplane, you’ll think back to this disturbing fact. A pilot’s union was surveyed and got some startling results. More than 50% of the pilots admitted to falling asleep while flying an airplane. Even more disturbing, 29% of those same pilots said when they woke up their co-pilot was sleeping. Now, we know that commercial airplanes can fly themselves these days, but this is one job you shouldn’t be sleeping on!
  7. Tear gas is a chemical agent that causes severe respiratory, eye and skin pain. The use of tear gas during World War 1 and its terrible effects resulted in it being banned in warfare in the Geneva Protocol of 1925. That sounds like a good thing, who would want to use this chemical agent to purposefully cause harm… law enforcement would! Tear gas is commonly used against protestors and rioters in many countries, including the United States. Apparently, tear gas is too horrible for war, but perfectly fine to use on your own citizens.
  8. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated there are around 1.3 billion smokers across the globe. Most of these smokers think they’re just inhaling tobacco, but most brands of cigarettes contain over 4,800 different chemicals. Smoking is estimated to cause early premature death for more than eight million people each year. That’s basically a death related to smoking every five seconds… two people died in the time it took you to read this fact. In the United States, secondhand smoke is estimated to kill around 50,000 Americans each year. Remember, secondhand smoke is when a non-smoker is exposed to the smoke from cigarettes. Think about that the next time a friend lights up a cigarette next to you.

Additional Resources with Disturbing Facts