AMERICA’S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS - DAY 9

With a fatality rate of 21.3 per 100,000 workers, farmers and ranchers have the ninth most dangerous occupation.

Over half the fatalities on farms stem from tractor accidents, according to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.  On ranches, all-terrain vehicle accidents are the most likely to kill workers.

Technical advances, including rollover protection for tractors, have reduced fatalities in the last few decades.  Nonetheless, farming and ranching remains a very dangerous occupation.

AMERICA’S MOST UNSAFE JOBS DAY 8

With a fatality rate of 22.1 per 100,000 workers, trucking is our nation’s eighth most dangerous job.

Drivers face tremendous pressure to get the freight delivered on time, maximizing the potential for dangerous truck accidents.  Despite rules requiring rest stops, many drivers are greatly fatigued.  Forty-eight percent of truckers report falling asleep at the wheel at least once in the previous 12 months, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

According to Henry Jasnay Vice President of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, rest stops of 30 minutes are required after eight hours of driving but are insufficient to rest drivers, who often feel just as tired as before their 30-minute break.

Many truckers falsify log books to show enforcement officers that they’ve complied with the rules.

A new danger is that heavy rigs travel on narrow, rural two-laners to supply fracking sites.  These roads were never engineered to handle large trucks

AMERICA’S MOST UNSAFE OCCUPATIONS DAY 7

Perhaps not surprisingly, power linesmen engage in the 7th most dangerous job in the United States.  Falls and electrocutions are the main causes of fatal injuries for power linemen, who often have to work in storms and cold to restore.

After high winds or ice storms cut power, lines are de-energized, making it less dangerous to work with.  In jobs in regular weather, however, linemen may be dealing with thousands of volts of electricity.

 

 

AMERICA’S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS - DAY 6

Refuse collection is one of the most hazardous jobs in the United States. Refuse and toxic waste are major sources of pollution that could cause serious personal injury disease if not properly disposed of.  The job of a sanitation worker is to protect society from the dangers associated with waste.  Because they deal with hazardous materials every time that they are on the job, sanitation workers put themselves at risk for serious personal injury from exposure on a daily basis.  Through technology and training, substantial efforts have been made in the waste industry to make such work safer.  Nonetheless, sanitation workers are among the top 10 most dangerous occupations, according to the cable news network.

Sanitation workers can be injured in a variety of ways.  Refuse collectors are hit by impatient drivers trying to bypass a garbage truck.  Defective equipment can cause unsafe working conditions.  Refuse trucks that have mechanical problems cause injury to its operators, resulting in cuts, severed limbs, and other serious personal injuries or wrongful death.  Operators standing in the rear platform can fall off the back of the truck and even be run over while it is in motion.  Clean up and collection crews can also sustain personal injuries from slipping, tripping, or falling on debris, oil or other chemicals.  In addition, hazardous chemicals can cause serious burn injuries if they are not handled properly.  Finally, sanitation garages are not maintained in safe conditions.  Oil and substances may collect on garage floors and defective floors might not be repaired when they should.

AMERICA’S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS – DAY 5

Continuing my entries on the nation’s riskiest occupations is the discussion of the fifth most perilous job:  ironworkers. 

Though falls are the most common cause of death for ironworkers, they also risk injuries from steel beam or reinforced concrete wall collapses, “struck-by” injuries from falling or swinging objects, and contact with live electrical lines.  Because new work rules require vertical beams to be anchored with four bolts instead of two, beams are less likely to work loose and crash, which has greatly enhanced the safety of the occupation.  Pennsylvania has an estimated number of iron and steel workers of 1,850, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

AMERICA’S RISKIEST JOBS

Continuing in my series on the most dangerous occupations in America is the nation’s fourth most dangerous job: Roofers. 

With a fatality rate of 40.5 per 100,000 workers, roofers face an extraordinary risk of occupational injury.  Because height is an inescapable hazard of the job, the odds of suffering critical injuries and accidents are much greater than in other occupations.

In addition to falls, however, they suffer burns, electrocutions, chemical exposures, and hoisting accidents.  Deaths and injuries have been significantly reduced as a result of better safety training and stricter guidelines in the use of guardrails, harnesses, and other systems. 

 

AMERICA’S MOST DANGEROUS JOBS – DAY 3

Major airline pilots have low job fatality rates, but for Bush, Charter, and Air Taxi pilots, the work is much more risky.

According the the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, human error is the number one cause of deaths for airline pilots. 

About a 5^th of fatal U.S. crashes occur in Alaska, according to the National Institute of Occupations Safety and Health.  Flying is much more common in Alaska, particularly because 82% of the State’s towns and settlements are reachable only by air.