Deadliest Occupations
What are the chances of being killed at work?
The chances of being killed at work are better than it was 1 year ago. When they first began doing statistics to see why people were dying on the job, it was actually in 1913 when there were only 38 million people in the workforce. Those days, at least 87-90 people went to work, didn't come home. Nowadays, there are three times as many people in the workforce, over 130 million and only 22 check in and don't check out. The causes of this are improvements in safety. Unfortunately, a lot of time safety isn't addressed until a number of fatalities take place. It's kind of like the street corner. Everyone knows it's dangerous and a red light doesn't get put there until a number of fatalities occur and the same thing occurs in the workplace. So safety is related to the number of accidents and the number of fatalities. So it is getting better because there are many organizations that are monitoring these statistics probably more than any other form of death from any other causes, workplace deaths are very accurately reported and monitored.
Are employers at a high risk of being killed by their employees?
Employers being killed by employees is still a problem in America today. Over 25 bosses were killed by former or current employees in the last year. But nowadays, there's been a slight decrease in employers being killed by employees with the number of background checks. It's infinitely safer than it was fifty years ago, when disgruntled employees were killing employers at a rate over 10% greater than they are today.
How can work affect my lifespan?
Being employed is actually better than being unemployed. Over ten percent greater chance of committing suicide among the unemployed than those who work. Even if you work sixty hours a week, it's better to have a job than not, as far as suicide statistics are concerned. As far as homicide on the job, it usually only occurs when romantic relationships go wrong. There's over 250 homicides a year, usually occurring between women and workers that have had a love relationship gone bad. It's easier to hide from or move to different locations, but it's very difficult to change your job. So, office romances are one of the leading causes of homicides. So you know the old saying: "Don't do 'you know what' where you eat" should be followed in this case.
What are the deadliest occupations?
The deadliest occupation worldwide is commercial fishing. That is still the most deadliest occupation because they're usually under pressure to meet quotas. You're in an unpredictable environment, and oftentimes the equipment is not maintained under the need of getting more fish quicker and sooner. But on land, the number one, the deadliest occupation is construction. And within the construction field, lumberjacks take the top prize as the deadliest occupation in America. They're working in environments under quotas, using chainsaws, working with falling trees. It's a dangerous environment. So lumberjacks is the deadliest occupation in America today.
Which occupations have a lower life-expectancy?
Life-expectancy has been found to relate to pure recognition in many regards. There were some study's that I conducted with baseball hall of famers. If they were elected into the baseball hall of fame, they lived 3.9 years longer than others. Pure recognition becomes a tangible fact of logevity. Such that poets in america live on an average fif-teen years less than other types of writers. It's not that they are not doing good work, or people don't appreciate poetry, but it has become with pure recognition. So there is no hall of fame for poets as there is for baseball. So their life span seems to be fif-teen years less.
Is my workplace "killing me"?
There's a thing called sick building syndrome. This first came out with Legionnaire's disease in the 1970s, where they realized that something could be happening in a building that could affect people's health. For that particular case, they found out there was a certain type of bacterium in the air ducts. So, this still occurs today, if there's a leak or mold in the air ducts from a roof leak or any other malfunction with the building itself, the indoor air environment can be more unhealthy than any outdoor air. Nowadays, the buildings don't have working windows. So years ago, you could open a window and the air would recycle. But now we rely on artificial means of recycling the air, and many times these types of bacteria and parasites that occur in the air system are invisible. They attribute to over 60,000 fatalities a year in the workplace. On a death certificate, you won't see sick building syndrome. You'll have any number of lung ailments that are caused by breathing bad air over and over. Mold and bacteria occur everywhere, but when it's kept in a closed environment, and under a long period of time, spending eight hours a day in a closed building that has what they call "sick air", this greatly increases the chance of dying prematurely.
What are the deadly risks from exposure to asbestos?
Asbestos used to be considered a wonder product. They believed it was a retardent for fires and they actually started to use it because thought it would save lives. So back in the 1920s and 1930s, they added asbestos to everything. Later on we discovered that the fibers in asbestos, we probably cannot process them and so they stay in the lungs. So any building that was built before 1973 almost certainly contained some form of asbestos. And if these walls are compromised or the ducts are damaged, then these fibers escape into the air and affect our lungs. Over 43,000 deaths have occurred from asbestos. Their numbers are being improved because nowadays no asbestos is being used except in brake pads and in some plumbing parts.
