pri_dk – why on #3 would you counter w/housewives. I checked the link from IAFF to BLS and it was all workplace related. While I don’t want to undermine the work done by housewives, the life expectancy discussed was in work environments, not home environments.
For those who are claiming that fishermen, timber cutter, etc are in the charts found recently on line as more dangerous jobs, consider what the BLS has stated:
Although occupations such as timber cutter, fisher, seaman, and aircraft
pilot have the highest fatality rates, they are found in relatively
few parts of the United States. (See table 1.) Firefighters and law
enforcement personnel, on the other hand, are found in every community in the United States. Although the dangers are quite different, both groups experience high fatality rates and risks.
They go on to say what I was trying to say earlier and CAR also:
Fatality counts are important in evaluating hazardous jobs because the
number of workers killed indicates the magnitude of a safety problem for a group of workers. The 15 occupations with the highest number of
fatalities for 1997 are listed in table 1. Combined, these 15 occupations
accounted for almost half of the job-related fatalities in 1997. But
fatality counts by themselves do not indicate the relative risks of any particular job. Fatality rates depict a worker’s risk of incurring a fatal work injury within the employment group, and rates can be used for comparing risk among varying groups of workers
It is the risk. Every day a cop faces risk. Every time there is a fire, a fireman faces the risk. That they suffer no injuries is a credit to them. Nevertheless the risk is real.
Also, pri_dk – why would you even address No. 7. If one’s job is, for example, a tech job, chances are that person will not be exposed to the risk of, say, lung cancer, such as a fireman, or a gunshot injury.
Maybe there should be volunteer firemen if not just to dispel the conjecture that it’s an easy gravy train. Sure you are stuck in a firehouse w/a bunch of sweaty guys. But it’s not like a fraternity where you’re having fun partying.
