When a doctor first bugged me about it, I looked it up, and decided that I would much rather take that extremely small risk than have to deal with water in my ears every day.
I tend to pace and to multitask, but I decided a few years ago (and have stuck to the decision pretty well) that whenever I was sticking something pointy in my ear I would stand still and give it my full attention.
As everyone here knows, it would be a stupid idea to switch from airplanes to cars out of safety/terrorism concerns: Cars are a much more risky means of transportation than airplanes. But what other major risks are there that many people systematically undervalue or are not even consciously aware of?
The same can be asked for chances.