Northwest labor press., April 20, 2012, Page 7, Image 7

The most dangerous jobs in America, 2010
Fishers, loggers, and airplane pi-
lots have the most dangerous jobs in
the United States, according to the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
According to the BLSs’ annual re-
port on workplace fatalities, 4,547
people died on the job in 2010. This
preliminary number is slightly lower
than the 4,551 fatal injuries recorded
in 2009, and the lowest on record
since the BLS began tracking infor-
1
Fishing Workers
Fatal injury rate:
116 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 29
2
Logging Workers
Fatal injury rate:
91.9 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 59
3
Aircraft Pilots/Flight Engineers
Fatal injury rate:
70.6 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 78
4
Farmers and Ranchers
Fatal injury rate:
41.4 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 300
5
Mining Machine Operators
Fatal injury rate:
38.7 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 23
6
Roofers
Fatal injury rate:
32.4 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 57
7
Refuse and Recyclable
Material Collectors
Fatal injury rate:
29.8 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 26
8
Drivers,
Including Sales and Truck Operators
Fatal injury rate:
21.8 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 683
9
Industrial Machinery Installers
and Maintenance Workers
Fatal injury rate:
20.3 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 96
10
Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers
Fatal injury rate:
18.0 deaths per 100,000 workers
Total deaths: 133
Source: U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics/Data for 2010
APRIL 20, 2012
mation in 1992.
Using the most recent data avail-
able, workers in the fishing-related in-
dustry died from workplace injuries at
the rate of 116 per 100,000 full-time
equivalent workers in 2010. That’s 60
times greater than the rate of 3.3 per
100,000 for the overall workforce.
For loggers, the fatality rate was
91.9 per 100,000, and for aircraft pi-
lots and flight engineers, 70.6 per
100,000.
The census illustrates that some of
the most dangerous and fatal jobs in
America in 2010 are not the “classic”
dangerous jobs — firefighters, high
rise window washers, and electric
linemen are not on the top 10 list.
Most of the dangerous jobs in 2010
require little formal training and have
relatively low entry barriers. Strict
safety measures are not enforced and
worker turnover rates can be high,
notes the Dangerous Jobs Guide web
site. This shows that dangerous jobs
are not only jobs that are dangerous by
nature, but are subject to many con-
tributing factors that make them more
hazardous and extreme.
Construction and transportation and
warehousing occupations registered
the most deaths overall per sector, at
780 and 657 respectively. But because
those deaths are counted against a
larger population of workers in those
fields, the fatality rates for both occu-
pations — 17.2 and 14.4 per 100,000
— don’t even make the top 10.
The 10 jobs listed to the left all had
fatal injury rates at least five times
greater than the U.S. average.
* Data for 2010 are preliminary; NOTE: Percentages may not add to totals because of rounding. Transportation counts are ex-
pected to rise when updated 2010 data are released in Spring 2012 because key source documentation on specific transporta-
tion-related incidents has not yet been received. SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2011.
OR-FACE: Program investigates job-related deaths
The Oregon Fatality Assessment
and Control Evaluation (OR-FACE)
program investigates work-related fa-
talities within the state that are caused
by a traumatic injury. The program is a
project of the Center for Research on
Occupational and Environmental Tox-
icology at Oregon Health & Science
University.
Each year OR-FACE issues a report
of its findings. The most recent report
available is for 2008, in which Oregon
recorded 57 fatal occupational inci-
dents, with 60 worker deaths. The
number represents a rate of 3.7 fatali-
ties per 100,000 employed workers in
the civilian labor force in Oregon. The
national worker fatality rate in 2008
was 3.7 per 100,000 full-time equiva-
lent workers.
The following notable trends oc-
curred in Oregon in 2008:
• Violence was the second most
common category of events, with nine
involving suicide, mostly related to fi-
nancial crisis and family problems.
• A higher proportion of incidents
than usual involved middle-aged work-
ers, aged 45-64. Violence accounted
for one-fourth of the incidents. All sui-
cide victims were aged 48‑58. Only
one incident involved an older worker,
aged 77.
• Transportation and contact events
involving mobile machinery and heavy
trucks were a principal source of fatal
injury, including tractors and farm ma-
chinery, dump trucks, construction
equipment, trailer rigs, a skidder, and
an all‑terrain vehicle.
• July was the deadliest month for
workers, with nine fatalities. January
and November were the safest months
of the year with two fatalities each.
• Tuesday was the most dangerous
day of the week, with 15 fatalities oc-
curing on that day of the week. Satur-
day and Sunday were the safest days
of the week with four fatalities, respec-
tively.
• The most dangerous time of day
is from 7 to 8:59 a.m., from 1 to 2:59
p.m., and from 3 to 4:59 p.m., with 8
fatalities occurring during each of
those time frames.
To see the full report, go on line to
www.ohsu.edu/croet/face.
Report blasts government contracting with unsafe companies
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Through-
out the United States, government
agencies at the state, local and federal
levels routinely award construction
contracts to companies known to be un-
safe, according to a Public Citizen re-
port released March 29. Public Citizen
is a nonprofit consumer advocacy or-
ganization based in Washington, D.C.
The report, called “Contract
Killers,” highlights cases in which
companies with suspect safety records
win government contracts around the
country, often with disastrous conse-
quences.
“Taxpayer dollars should not be
wasted on companies that expose their
employees to dangerous work condi-
tions,” said Justin Feldman, worker
health and safety advocate with Public
Citizen. “When government agencies
fail to properly assess construction
companies for health and safety per-
formance, the results are not only ex-
pensive, but deadly.”
The report details how most gov-
ernment agencies either have no
process for reviewing contractor health
and safety performance, or their proce-
dures are inadequate. It calls on law-
makers to require agencies to consider
a company’s safety violations and in-
jury prevention practices before award-
ing contracts.
The report cited several cases in
which government agencies awarded
construction contracts to companies
that demonstrated alarming health and
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
safety problems:
• Robinson Prezioso, Inc., based in
Santa Fe Springs, Calif., was allowed
to work on government projects for
decades despite a long history of safety
violations. While working on the Bay
Bridge connecting San Francisco with
Oakland, Calif., unsafe conditions
maintained by the company led to
deaths, injuries and lead poisoning.
While working on a power plant in
Colorado, the company’s inadequate
precautions led to a fire that killed five
workers. The corporation pleaded
guilty to criminal charges in 2011 for
the fire.
• Workers at Triangle Grading and
Paving, Inc., based in Burlington, N.C.,
died in a manhole of apparent suffoca-
tion due to a lack of oxygen. The city
of Durham awarded the company a
sewer installation contract even as the
company had been cited by OSHA
more than 60 times for construction-re-
lated safety violations.
• Bontrager Excavating, located in
Uniontown, Ohio, repeatedly exposed
workers to trenching hazards, which
ultimately killed a worker on a Jackson
Township, Ohio, sewer repair project.
• Nicholson Drilling, located in Port
Orchard, Wash., was hired by a public
water district in Kitsap County, Wash.,
to drill a well, despite a record of safety
violations and a worker fatality.
To read the full report, go to:
http://citizen.org/contract-killers-
worker-safety-report.
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