>most dangerous job<
I beg to differ on this one, ot, because I know, living here in Cape May, NJ, one of the nation's largest commercial fishery seaports in the country, that commercial fisherman is usually ranked as the most dangerous job today...however, this list demotes it to second with #1 claimed by...lumberjack:
>Who Has the Most Dangerous Job?
We all have an impression of what constitutes a dangerous job. Usually we base our feelings on three types of information. First, what we actually experience, since we all face various hazards during our daily tasks. Second, we all read and watch news accounts of mishaps. Third, we see different lists, charts and graphs that depict who gets killed and how frequently.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released one snapshot, based on 2002 data of on-the-job fatalities per 100,000 workers. The verdict: people who cut down trees, with a rate of 118 deaths per 100,000 workers. This is more than 26 times the average of all workers.
Commercial fishermen were second, with 71 deaths per 100K workers (drowning was the most common cause). Commercial pilots were third (70 per 100K, with most of the deaths in general aviation, with bush pilots, air-taxi pilots and crop-dusters producing spikes in the data far higher than the rate for airline pilots).
Structural-metal workers-such as the people who build skyscrapers and bridges-were fourth, with a rate of 58 per 100K. And fifth on the list were sales personnel who drive as a main part of their job (such as pizza delivery or servicing vending machines), with traffic wrecks, robberies and assaults as major factors.
The occupation with the highest total number of deaths-truck drivers, with 808-had a rate of 25 per 100K.
For the record, the Navy rate for on-duty deaths is 9.37, and the Marine Corps rate is 21.75.
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Note: Fatality rates have a variety of limitations and are not the only method of measuring risks on the job. Other measures available from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics include information on occupations with large numbers of fatal and non-fatal injuries, as well as incidence rates for non-fatal injuries. Visit their web site at
http://www.bls.gov/iif/home.htm for more information.<
