Path: tribune.usask.ca!decwrl!decwrl!concert!news-feed-1.peachnet.edu!darwin.sura.net!mailer.acns.fsu.edu!hotline.cc.fsu.edu!user From: otto@garnet.acns.fsu.edu (John G. Otto) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: deaths on the job Followup-To: talk.politics.guns Date: 2 Dec 1993 23:08:45 GMT Organization: FSU Students of Objectivism Lines: 82 Distribution: world Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: hotline.cc.fsu.edu Tallahassee Democrat Monday 1993-11-29 page A4 Nation Work Place Fatalities Murder is the leading cause of work place deaths in 5 states Across the nation in the last decade, murder is the 3rd most likely way to die at work, after motor vehicle accidents & machine-related injuries. By Lauran Neergaard, AP, Washington Murder was the leading cause of work place death in 5 states & DC during the 1980s, according to the 1st federal study to pin- point work place fatalities by state. Of the 7603 Americans slain on the job in the last decade, 985 workers were murdered in AL, CT, MD, MI, SC & DC. NY doesn't tabulate on the job homicide, but NIOSH estimated its toll at 867. If accurate, that would make NY the capital of work place murder. "We need to realize that these fatal injuries are not acts of god.", said Lynn Jenkins, author of the sutdy. "They are preventable & we must take steps to find out what the risks are & how to prevent them." NIOSH 1st warned about work place homicide last month, when an early analysis of this study showed murder to be the biggest killer of working women. The full study, scheduled to be released Monday, offers the 1st state by state look at the problem. NIOSH wants state govts to find ways to prevent the biggest killers of their workers, Jenkins said. Nation-wide, 62,289 civilians died on the job from 1980-1989 - 17/day. Another 1300 soldiers perished. Over all, murder was the 3rd leading killer of civilians, following motor vehicle crashes & machine-related injuries. TX, CA, FL, IL & PA had the highest number of work place fatalities, but a better measure of risk is the rate of fatalities/100K workers. Using that, the workers most at risk were in AK, with 34.8 deaths/100K workers. The safest workers were in CT, with a rate of 1.8; MA 2.3; NY 2.6 - even though CT & NY had 50 & 867 work place murders, respectively. Most likely to be murdered at work were taxi drivers, police & retail workers. At highest risk were people working with money or valuables, or working alone at night, Jenkins said. State annual avg rate AL 1143 9.2 AK 561 34.8 CA 6623 6.3 CO 1110 8.9 CT 255 1.8 DC 191 4.5 FL 3681 9.1 GA 2176 9.6 IL 2853 6.3 IN 1509 7.4 LA 1438 11.0 MS 1064 14.5 MO 1052 5.3 MT 525 20.9 NJ 1009 3.3 NY 1783 2.6 NC 1749 7.0 ND 304 13.5 OH 1841 4.6 OR 1050 10.9 PA 2564 5.9 SC 784 6.8 SD 331 14.2 TN 1392 7.8 TX 6664 11.3 VA 1942 9.4 - 30 -