Feel safe at work? Well, a new federal study says Utahns have a workplace death rate that is 71 percent higher than the national average.
And if you happen to be a miner in Utah, the workplace death rate is 1,021 percent (or 11 times) higher than the national average for all workers.That's according to a study of job-related deaths during the 1980s released recently by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
It said that between 1980 and 1989, Utah had a rate of 12.3 people killed on the job per 100,000 workers. That was 71 percent higher than the national average of 7.0 per 100,000 workers.
Jay Bagley, director of the State Industrial Commission's Occupational Safety and Health Office, took issue with the 12.3 figure, saying his records indicate the figure is closer to 10.4.
Bagley said statistics on injuries and death are often misleading because they are generated from three different sources.
The most dangerous industry in Utah was mining, with a fatal injury rate of 79.5 per 100,000 - more than 10 times higher than the national average. The next most dangerous Utah industry was transportation/communications, with a rate of 39.4 per 100,000.
The figures suggest that Utah workers might be safer if they didn't drive on the job. A third (33.7 percent) of all Utah worker deaths were caused by auto accidents.
The next highest causes were air transportation accidents and machine-related accidents, which each caused 10 percent of the Utah fatalities.
A trend that worries federal officials is that homicide is becoming a major cause of workplace deaths - and already is the No. 1 cause of them in the District of Columbia, Alabama, Connecticut, Maryland, Michigan and South Carolina.
About 12 percent of all job-related deaths nationwide result from homicide. But it causes only about 4 percent of workplace deaths in Utah.
That is still the eighth leading cause of job deaths in the state behind auto accidents, airplane accidents, machine accidents, falls, fire, being struck by a falling object and electrocution.
The figures provide other interesting tidbits about who is at higher risk in Utah, for example:
- The death rate for men on the job is 16 times higher than that for women. Men (who suffered 96 percent of all Utah job fatalities) had a rate of 16.0 per 100,000, while the rate for women was 1.0 per 100,000.
- Workers between the ages of 30 and 34 had the highest proportion of Utah deaths, 18 percent. Those ages 25 to 29 were close behind with 17 percent of all deaths.
- People who worked in clerical jobs had the lowest workplace death rate, just 0.6 per 100,000.
Figures show that during the 1980s, 655 workers in Utah were killed on the job - and 647 were civilians. Nationally, 63,589 Americans were killed on the job.
"Our job only begins with the identification of these problems," said Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "We must continue the fight for worker safety with new enthusiasm and realize that this is truly something that affects us all."
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(Chart)
Industrial fatalities
1980-89 death rates in Utah industries
Industry Deaths Death Rate*
Mining 98 79.5
Trans./Comms. 132 39.4
Construction 91 33.3
Agriculture 48 21.3
Manufacturing 66 7.3
Wholesale Trade 17 5.0
Services 64 4.9
Finance/Insurance 9 2.9
Retail Trade 17 1.6
Public Adminis. 42 N/A
Not Cassified 63 N/A
Utah Total 647 12.3
*Annual Fatal Accident rate per 100,000 workers
States with highes workplace death rate, 1980-1989
State Total deaths Death Rate*
1. Alaska 561 34.8
2. Wyoming 454 29.0
3. Montana 525 20.9
4. Idaho 520 16.7
5. West Virginia 770 15.7
6. Mississippi 1,064 14.5
7. South Dakota 331 14.2
8. North Dakota 304 13.5
9. Utah 647 12.3
10. Arkansas 874 12.0
*Annual Fatal Accident rate per 100,000 workers.
SOURCE: National institute for occupation safety and health