Dangerous jobs relative risk

Mr. Toscano provides some 1995 relative risk fatality statistics which compare several industries relative risk with the occupations described above in his Dangerous Jobs article. These numbers are specific to 1995 and involve fatalities, not major injuries. On a typical day about 17 workers in the United States are killed on the job. Thank goodness that job-related fatalities are relatively infrequent for specific standard industry classifications (SIC code), but a large incident in any industry may skew the information from year to year. 

The statistics about truck driving show that job to be relatively dangerous. However, if trucking is considered as an industry the risk numbers are diluted since the employees of that industry include not only the drivers (a dangerous job) but also the clerical, sales, dispatching, repair, and other support groups, which have significantly lower exposures. 

Despite the common misperception of chemical process industry being dangerous to occupants and surrounding communities, which is promoted by isolated case histories, such as the Bhopal tragedy, regular statistics show a very different picture. According to the data presented by Sanders (2005) the relative risk index of workplace accidents in chemical and allied products industry (value of 0.6) is about 20 times less than the relative risk faced by Fishermen (index of 21.3) and Timber cutters (index of 20.6). It is even less than the relative risk of an average job (index of 1.0). This fact is further emphasized when it comes to the fatal accidents and death. 

In other words, the local population sees the danger outside of the organization that provides jobs (to a person or someone s close relative). This reflex of denial appears similar to the one of putting a social stigma on your neighbor in social housing projects. Yet, here, the reflex carries the sociopathological risks, in the sense of industrial incorporation, because it tends to underestimate its actual threat. 

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