The most hazardous job in the US is...

[Bill, KD0HG]

Per OSHA:

The occupation of radio tower climber is most hazardous occupation in the US.  The current fatality rate is 46 per 10,000 employees.  The accident/fatality rate has already doubled last years figures.

------------------------------------

Recent accidents mentioned here, learn and live.

http://www.wirelessestimator.com/breaking_news.cfm

[Glenn NY4NC]

Your new avatar goes along with that post Bill. 

[K1JJ]

That's the post of the month, Bill.  Thanks for some informative reading.

Over the years, I've worked with a number of tower crews and often wondered why there were not more accidents. These guys are usually very careful, but probability catches up over time and errors occur.  The stories told on that site confirm what I have always thought - they DO have their share of mishaps.

I found the following link interesting. It talked about the five minute limit until death when hanging in a full body harness. After a fall, keeping your legs high and moving the leg muscles to prevent serious circulation problems hit home. I was not aware of this.

http://www.wirelessestimator.com/t_content.cfm?pagename=Suspension%20Trauma

TNX, Bill!

T

[Bill, KD0HG]

That's the post of the month, Bill.  Thanks for some informative reading.

Over the years, I've worked with a number of tower crews and often wondered why there were not more accidents. These guys are usually very careful, but probability catches up over time and errors occur.  The stories told on that site confirm what I have always thought - they DO have their share of mishaps.

I found the following link interesting. It talked about the five minute limit until death when hanging in a full body harness. After a fall, keeping your legs high and moving the leg muscles to prevent serious circulation problems hit home. I was not aware of this.

http://www.wirelessestimator.com/t_content.cfm?pagename=Suspension%20Trauma

TNX, Bill!

T

I wasn't aware of that 5-minutes until you're toast, either, Tom. Apparently, no one is.
You be careful, dude.

-Bill

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

These numbers seem to be different than others I've seen.

Even on the Wireless Estimator site, there seems to be conflicting info.

"115 deaths per 100,000 workers."

"Although tower climbers are one of the smallest specialized construction groups with approximately 8,700 employees..."  "Evansville, Indiana technician is 2006's 16th fatality." These numbers produce a fatality rate of about 184 per 100,000.

And there were only seven deaths in 2005 (80 per 100,000), thus underscoring the problem of "analyzing" small numbers and trying to attach statistical significance to them. Rather large percentage changes get reported as significant trends. They are not. Of course, none of this is to imply those fatalities are in anyway insignificant or the people are any less dead.


--------
1. Logging workers
Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed
Median Pay: $29,730
Logging and timber workers duties include cutting down trees and cutting and moving logs, providing the raw material for countless products. The nature of their work puts them at constant risk of being killed by heavy, falling objects.

2. Aircraft pilots and flight engineers
Fatalities: 92.4 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $129,250 -- but may be much lower for commercial pilots.
Although aircraft pilots and flight engineers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, don't swear off air travel just yet. This category also includes commercial pilots of smaller aircraft -- including crop dusters and air taxis -- that are far more likely to crash than your typical 747.

3. Fishers and related workers
Fatalities: 86.4 per 100,000 employed
Median Pay: $24,100
Fishers endure storms, fog, wind and hazardous working conditions before bringing you the fresh salmon on your dinner plate. Perilous weather puts fishers at risk of drowning if their boat capsizes or they fall overboard. And if they suffer serious injuries while at sea, help isn't readily available.

4. Structural iron and steel workers
Fatalities: 47 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $42,430
These workers climb dozens of stories to lay the iron and steel that form buildings, bridges and other structures. Despite strapping on harnesses and other safety gear, structural iron and steel workers face a high risk of fatal injuries from falls.

5. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
Fatalities: 43.2 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $25,760
When refuse and recyclable material collectors take away your trash, they risk traffic accidents and fatal injuries from explosions of hazardous materials. According to a University of Miami study, the leading cause of on-the-job fatalities for these workers is impatient motorists who try to pass the garbage truck and hit the driver.

6. Farmers and ranchers
Fatalities: 37.5 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $40,440
Farmers and ranchers raise animals and plant, cultivate and harvest crops used to produce our food. However, the tractors and machinery used by these workers can be very dangerous: Non-highway vehicle accidents accounted for 40 percent of occupational fatalities for farmers and ranchers in 2004.

7. Roofers
Fatalities: 34.9 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $30,840
When these workers climb atop your house to build or repair your roof, they risk slipping or falling from scaffolds, ladders or roofs, or burning themselves on flammable, toxic materials.

8. Electrical power line installers and repairers
Fatalities: 30 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $49,100
When your lights go out, line installers and repairers climb power poles and towers to get your electricity up and running. Power lines are typically high off the ground, so workers are at high risk of injury due to falls. Plus, these workers are often at risk of electrocution from contact with the high-voltage power lines.

9. Driver/sales workers and truck drivers
Fatalities: 27.6 per 100,000 employed
Truck driver median pay: $33,520
Driver/sales worker median pay: $20,090
Truck drivers transport goods including cars and livestock, and driver/sales workers deliver and sell their firm's products over established routes. Both groups spend the majority of their time on the road, putting them at high risk of highway vehicle crashes.

10. Taxi drivers and chauffeurs
Fatalities: 24.2 per 100,000 employed
Median pay: $19,570
The dangers of shuttling around patrons go far beyond highway crashes. Taxi drivers, who often work alone and carry large amounts of cash, may also find themselves victims of robbery and homicide.

[k4kyv]

I had never heard of this suspension trauma business before, but I have heard about soldiers fainting from standing at attention for prolonged periods.

When doing tower work, it would appear that this problem would be less likely if the lanyards are attached  to the harness at the hip level rather than at the mid-chest point or at the back.

It the past, I always used a climbing belt, with lanyard wrapped around the tower, and just enough slack to lean back comfortably while keeping both arms free for doing the work.  Losing one's footing on the tower structure would leave one hanging closely enough to the tower to be able to regain footing, assuming you remained in a vertical position with no disabling injury.

What about skydiving?  Don't parachutists hang from their harness, in a vertical position, with feet dangling?  Of course they normally don't take 5 minutes or longer to  descend.  But what if they get caught up in a tree or power lines and left dangling?

It was interesting the story about the worker who died from a 20 ft. fall.  I have been known to climb my tower up to the 1st 30' guy wire with no safety equipment at all.  But that's highly dangerous, since once you exceed 20'-25', any fall is likely to be fatal.  You would be just as dead falling from a 30' height as you would be from a 120' fall.

[K1JJ]

The problem of hanging appears related to the legs. With a full body harness, there are straps around the legs as well as leg immobility when hanging. Notice they say if a stranded climber were to push up on his leg muscles against the tower, this would get the blood flowing back up to the brain.

Perhaps a combination of restriction, gravity and imobility of the legs causes the lack of blood returned to the brain, thus brain blood deficiency.

One of my climbing friends claims he's gone back to a waist harness for this reason. I cannot agree. Personally, after installing a fall arrest cable going the length of each tower with the safety slider hooked to the chest buckle, I would not climb any other way. Before this full body harness /arrest system, I used to dread climbing. I usually free-climbed because of impatience. But now it doesn't phase me in the least to climb to any height at any time. That fall arrest system made all the difference, psychologically.

The system is so inexpensive and easy to install, I've made it a rule that unless ham buddies have a fall arrest system  installed on their towers, I will not climb it. It's a simple way of encouraging them to become safer climbers and preventing me from taking a fall on an unfamiliar tower.

T

[W5AMI]

Let's don't forget the deaths that occur every year from long term health effects of the job or previous job.

Miners (open pit and tunnel) die every day from inhalation of various dusts over the years.  I know many myself that are no longer with us, from just ONE mine I used to work in.  They died of various lung problems.  I consider myself lucky now, even though at the time some of my family thought I was being irresponsible when I quit in my twenties.  Pay was good (at that time) for a man my age with a wife and one small child, but something came over me one day when I heard a co-worker sleeping (sitting on his bucket) at lunch.  He sounded as if he water in in lungs, and would occasionally just stop breathing!  I called him Murphy and he was probably in his late 40's, maybe early 50's  by then.  You had to retire at 60 from there no matter how long you had been there already. 

I decided right there and then that I was getting out, and did a month or so later.  That was almost 30 years ago and now I have breathing problems too.  I know of at least 7 men that I worked with at that one mine who have died from lung disease.  I only knew (personally) about 15 or so out of probably 200, and have no idea if any of the rest of them suffered the same fate.  Oh, and by the way, that was a huge open pit granite quarry!  Not a shaft mine... Murphy died 3 years after I left, about 5 or so years from his retirement.

Oh yeah, we had workers get killed once in a blue moon, but nothing like the numbers of those who died from the lung stuff later down the road.  I remember one day when a "crusher helper", a young guy, fell into the crusher and got transported (what was left of him) down the mountain on the belt to the mill below.  The operator never even saw what happened until it was too late.  I don't think the operator could have stopped it in time to make any difference anyway.

[WA1GFZ]

hey what about the 100,000 guys walking around iraq with targets on their backs.

[K1JJ]

"Let's don't forget the deaths that occur every year from long term health effects of the job or previous job. Miners (open pit and tunnel) die every day from inhalation of various dusts over the years."


Yes, this is an important area. It's amazing how careless we all were even 30 years ago. I use to work in a car body shop and saw guys sanding fiberglass and painting cars without masks.

Today, many smart car painters have full blown external air systems with hoses attached to their masks.  Heck, I even use a mask when mowing the lawn these days. If I forget to use a mask for ANY dusty environment, I walk up at night hacking my lungs out.

I hope OSHA has standards in place these days for all types of dust inhalation on the job. There's no surer way to eventually kill yourself. I think maybe the most psychologically torturous death may be the equivalent of breathing through a straw gasping for air. That's what happens when the lungs slowly shut down from abuse.  Hard way to go.

T

[W5AMI]

hey what about the 100,000 guys walking around iraq with targets on their backs.

Yeah!  Another good point in this discussion.  My son was real close to that situation, but opted out a few years before 911, etc.  I don't want to get political here, and in my humble opinion it isn't, but those guys fighting for us, regardless if you believe or not, are THE one's we should focus on right now.  They are doing what they are told to do, as it has been since we had an organized military in the USA.  Valiant people, they are.

They have my utmost respect, and I wish them all the luck in a safe return home...

[wa1knx]

falls, the day I lost my climbing balls for good. I used to climb, hated it, but did. over
time could build up to longer times up at higher heights. about 8 yrs ago, fell off the top of a step ladder triming trees! luck I had a winter coat on, missed a branch set to impale
me away! crashed on the ground, and heard my spine, neck crunch. saw went flying
10', glasses over that. screamed on the way down. layed there for several minutes
testing "systems" finally got up, black and blues, aching intestines, back sides, blurred
vision etc. etc. took quite a while to fully recover. can't imagine falling 50-100'! Tom,
glad you put that system on your tower! deano

[WA1GFZ]

Dean,
A guy here at work did the same thing and has 3 screws in his wrist now. I trashed my back with a 10 foot fall. Usually the short distances are the ones that get you.
2 years ago my brother and I had a 26 foot ladder on staging to side the high peak of the new place. We were careful as cats and the last hunk of siding at 30 feet had my knees knocking. A ladder is worse than a tower because it can move.
The poor heros in Iraq have no choice of safety.
B52s would be a lot safer and get much better results.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Yea! Wid some nukes. Dat be sweeeet!

[The Slab Bacon]

Yea! Wid some nukes. Dat be sweeeet!

AMEN, BROTHER!! Workz for me!



However, the deadliest job in the world is dealing with my wife when she's pissed off!!
Why do you think we refer to them as "the war department"

[KB2WIG]

The most dangerous job in the United States is Judge on the US Supreme Court. Few retire or resign; almost all of them died while employed.

The 2nd most dangerous job in the United States is the President of the United states.  Of the 41 , 4 were assassinated and 4 died "naturallyy" The death rate is 19%, or, the rate for 100,000 would be 19,512 per 100,000....  However, the retirement benefis are quite good.     klc

[WA1GFZ]

B61
arm pwr H&J
PAL
USG
gnd retard
pulse load
run