There are many dangerous jobs. The terrible tragedy in West, Texas, where 12 firemen died rushing to a factory that was poorly run and poorly regulated drives that point home.
A new Centers For Disease Control And Prevention study finds that oil and gas workers do dangerous work. Indeed, they have a fatality rate that is 7 times greater than the national average. Oil and gas workers suffer 27.1 fatalities per 100,000 workers, while the US average is 3.8 fatalities, and many of the deaths are in helicopters. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6216a2.htm.
The helicopter accidents took place mainly in the offshore industry, but it is not helicopters alone making oil and gas work dangerous. The fatality rate would still be about 4 times greater for oil and gas, even with the helicopter deaths removed from the oil and gas total.
Either way, the record is just not safe enough.
It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it!
ReplyDeleteWorth noting that these numbers are for OFFSHORE oil/gas drilling.
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