ACCIDENTS AT WORK: FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB
Every day, 17 people go to their death after going to work. Each year, more than 6,000 people are killed on the job-92 percent of whom are men. And you thought your home life was stressful?
As you might expect, those at greatest risk for dying on the job are men who work in the great outdoors, where the whims of Mother Nature often become a factor, says Guy A. Toscano, economist in the Office of Safety, Health, and Working Conditions at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. Fishermen and loggers have it the worst by far. While the national average for deaths on the job is 5 out of every 100,000 workers, these out-doormen die at rates 20 to 30 times higher- losing more than 100 workers and, in some years, even rates as high as 150, out of every 100,000 on the job. “Truck drivers, farmers, and construction laborers have occupations that have high fatality rates as well as high numbers of job-related fatal injuries as well,” says Toscano.
But as bad as those figures sound, things are actually better than they used to be. Back in 1912, when we knew (and some would say cared) less about job safety, between 18,000 and 21,000 workers a year lost their lives while earning their daily bread. By 1995, with a work force more than triple in size producing 13 times as many goods and services, occupational deaths had decreased by more than two-thirds. “We have become more aware of safety issues in society at large,” explains Michael Buchet, manager of the construction division and the labor division at the National Safety Council in Itasca, Illinois. “In industry, we’ve been encouraging safer workplace practices and are pushing for training, training, and more training.”
That said, after decades of progress, it seems harder to make gains in workplace safety these days, Toscano says. “We’ve clearly hit a plateau in that the number of fatal occupational injuries has held steady at the 6,000 to 6,500 mark for the past five years,” he says. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t make any more progress. But it does mean that safety professionals have to be willing to work harder to recognize risk and promote safety measures.”
*108/36/5*
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Categories: General health | Tags: General health
