Jobs with highest fatal injury risk

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 32

Jobs with highest fatal injury risk

PA Wellington Pilots, fishermen and farmers are among the workers most likely to die of work-related injuries. A study of jobs which have the highest fatal injury risk has shown pilots on top of the list, followed by fishermen, forestry workers, miners, hunters, farmers, labourers, production and transport workers. For men the risk of a work-related fatal injury was about 10 times higher than for women, according to the study. Workers over 60 were also more at risk than their younger colleagues. Road accidents were not included in the figures, but studies in the United States estimated about 25 per cent of workrelated deaths were through car accidents. The study, by Dr Colin Cryer and Ms Cara Fleming, of the Wellington Clinical School of Medicine’s Community Health Department, funded by an

Accident Compensation Corporation grant, looked at the 986 workers killed between 1975 and 1984. The study was the first step towards evaluating how work accidents happened and how they could be prevented. Dr Cryer said the statistics for the highest risk categories were not considered to be 100 per cent accurate because of the small number of workers in some jobs and problems in gaining accurate occupation statistics. He said the estimated over all death rate from work-related injuries over the 10-year period was 7.2 deaths for 100,000 workers. The study also showed a decrease in deaths — the rate was significantly lower between 1980 and 1984 compared with 1975 to 1979. But Dr Cryer said it was difficult to interpret possible reasons without further study. Particular problems

were found with tractors and earth-moving machinery — specially front-end loaders. Of 54 deaths in the 10year period which involved earth-moving machinery, 24 were of front-end loader drivers. “This is clearly a cause for concern,” Dr Cryer said. The rates in 100,000 workers in the specific occupation were: Pilots, navigators and flight engineers, 1500; agricultural pilots, 1080; helicopter pilots, 1010; fishermen, 270; forestry workers, 68; mining and quarrying industry, 60; farmers, 19; production, transport and labourers, 10. Dr Cryer said deer cullers, commercial deer shooters, and agricultural workers also featured in the highest risk groups. The study, started in December, 1984, and completed this year, did not include deaths from occupational diseases.