Why Do Federal Airport Screeners Have the Highest Injury Rates?

[Eimacman]

Mgb_phys

What I mean “total number of persons doing the job globally” means that every one in the world that is doing the job at any given time, that is for an astronomer every one engaged in the occupation of watching the stars any where on Earth. And the “total number of deaths caused by the job”, is any fatality that is a direct result of doing the job, for your astronomer that would be if a telescope fell off its gimbals and crushed him or her to death. If the astronomer died as the result of an accident such as an automobile accident wile going to work that would not count in the calculation for it was not a fatality directly caused by the job, nor would slipping on a bar of soap wile taking a shower that might happen at any housing that may be at any given observatory, for such events can happen to anyone anywhere at any given time and are not caused by the act of astronomy. If the astronomer had a heart attack, that would not count either, unless it can be proved that it was a heart attack directly caused by doing the job of being an astronomer. The causality of any fatal event in this case must be limited to events caused by the job directly or any calculation will be in error.


Turbo-1

Yes! You ‘hit the nail on the head’ falling out of the observation cage after falling a sleep would definitely be a event caused by doing the job of astronomer.

On the other thing of metal poisoning, certain oxides of various metals are very poisonous such as beryllium oxide and lead oxide, mercury sulphide is some what toxic, any form of mercury salts that are soluble in water are very poisonous, and certain metallic organics such as tetra ethyl lead.

The latter reminds me of how deep salvage diving can be a very hazardous occupation when 75 55gal drums of Tetra Ethyl Lead were salvaged of the coast of Spain back in the 1960's by Jacques Cousteau aboard the Calypso. During one of the dives in which a barrel was being removed, only one drop got on one of the diver’s hands and it nearly killed him. He had to be rushed to the surface and put in a decompression chamber and taken immediately to hospital.

I can see that any occupation containing the word ‘suicide’ would be up there as being the most dangerous job where the outcome of failure would result in life, but I am not sure that a virgin sacrifice to the goddess Pele counts as an occupation.

Eimacman

 

[mgb_phys]

Mgb_phys
If the astronomer died as the result of an accident such as an automobile accident wile going to work that would not count

Depends, if they were only driving a 4x4 down a steep road at 14,000ft in a white-out to get off Mauna Kea it would count!
Deep sea diver in the North sea is regarded as a pretty dangerous job, but in thelast 20years none have been killed diving. Two died on Piper Alpha (the entire rig blew up) and a couple more died in helicopter crashes. Presumably this would count.

My point was that apparently dangerous jobs aren't necessarily that dangerous because extreme safety standards and attitudes that go along with the work. The really dangerous jobs tend to be those like construction where the attitude is more lax.

 

[tribdog]

Now, why would that be? After all, a Suicide bomber is pretty sure of his faith and what many people want most is certainty. Moreover in some religions suicide bombers seem to earn a harem of maidens afterwards.

Yeah, you might get 30 virgins, problem is they are all male.

 

[NeoDevin]

Yeah, you might get 30 virgins

And I thought having one virgin was a lot of bother.

 

[DaveC426913]

...in some religions suicide bombers seem to earn a harem of maidens afterwards.

Common misconception. The harem of virgins are there to aid in the judgement of the person, not to service him.

Slight difference there eh?

 

[tribdog]

Common misconception. The harem of virgins are there to aid in the judgement of the person, not to service him.

Slight difference there eh?

depends on what they are judgeing on.

 

[Eimacman]

Mgb_phys

For the sake of argument I will explain mathematically.

It is assumed that the inherit danger of a job is directly per portional to the sum of the probabilities of fatal events that are directly related to the doing a job.

Therefore: for the set A, in this case our astronomer, a set consisting of elements that are fatal events, and subset D a set containing elements of fatal events that are directly related to doing the job of astronomer as defined by the function above.

Further more for the sake of argument we have two additional sets B and C. Set B will be defined as the set consisting of elements that are fatal events that are related to to a delivery person, and subset E a set containing elements of fatal events that are directly related to doing the job of delivery person. Set C will be defined as the set consisting of elements that are fatal events that are related to a friend of the astronomer.

As you said:
“Depends, if they were only driving a 4x4 down a steep road at 14,000ft in a white-out to get off Mauna Kea it would count!”

This is not true: for the event of “driving a 4x4 down a steep road at 14,000ft in a white-out to get off Mauna Kea” is part of a subset consisting of the intersection of the sets A, B, and C. That is that event could happen to the astronomer, or a delivery person, or the friend of the astronomer that came for a visit. By definition the subset D, defined as the fatal events that are directly related to the job of astronomer, is disjoint; as is the subset E, defined as the fatal events that are directly related to the job of delivery person, (although this one element in the subset E can be, by definition, as being disjoint in relation to sets A and B).

In response to:
“Deep sea diver in the North sea is regarded as a pretty dangerous job, but in the last 20years none have been killed diving. Two died on Piper Alpha (the entire rig blew up) and a couple more died in helicopter crashes. Presumably this would count.

My point was that apparently dangerous jobs aren't necessarily that dangerous because extreme safety standards and attitudes that go along with the work. The really dangerous jobs tend to be those like construction where the attitude is more lax.”


A helicopter crash can happen to anyone any where at any time therefore that element is not disjoint in relation to a fatal event directly brought about by diving. If there were divers of the platform were working under water when the platform ‘went up’ and their breathing gasses were cutoff because of it, and they were killed as a result, then that element event would not be disjoint for it would be directly related.

As to your second statement:
Safety standards and attitudes of the persons involved lessen the probability of fatality, but it will not eliminate it. The danger remains.

Eimacman

 

[Eimacman]

I made an error, the statement should read:

A helicopter crash can happen to anyone any where at any time therefore that element is not disjoint in relation to a fatal event directly brought about by diving. If there were divers of the platform were working under water when the platform ‘went up’ and their breathing gasses were cutoff because of it, and they were killed as a result, then that element event would be disjoint for it would be directly related.

Eimacman

 

[wildman]

I have found that the most dangerous jobs are:

1) Mercury mining
2) Arctic and subarctic fishing
3) Farming
4) EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal)
5) Mining (below ground not strip mining)
6) Metal refining, including furnace lancing, etc
7) Industrial cleanup, including cleaning chemical reactors, heat exchangers etc
8) Deep sea diving ocean salvage
9) Shallow diving depths of less than 100ft
10) High-rise construction worker

And my main definition of 'hazardous' is directly based on the probability that the job in question will kill you if you had such a field of work.

Mercury mining one is constantly exposed to mercury vapor and rock fall.
Any kind of fishing exposes one to extreme weather conditions in which the probability of being rescued can be small to nil.
Farming can be extremely dangerous, I personally know of a farmer getting his arm ripped off, when he fell into a spinning PTO shaft, another fellow had a three quarter ton round bale fall off his front end loader onto him wile he was on his tractor and broke his back, he was on that tractor for ten hours before he was found, I my self suffered three broken ribs when I was trampled.
The main danger of EOD is being blown to pieces if you make a mistake, like removing a 2000lb UXB from a factory.
In mining there is the constant risk of rock fall, coke damp, and poison gas. Now you might be thinking "Neutrino detectors are located in mines how can they be that unsafe?" well that is because they are no longer being worked.
Metal refining exposes a person to lethal chemicals like cyanide and temperatures, and getting hit by a 20lb blob of white hot steel will make a mess out of you.
In industrial cleanup one can be exposed to all kinds of chemicals, and hydrolic cleaner rams can punch a hole through a person like a 90mil at point blank range, and fall risk such a falling in a 200ft tower or down a 500ft utility shaft (safety belts are rarely used).
Diving both shallow and deep exposes one to nitrogen narcosis, decompression sickness, equipment malfunction causing your mixture to being wrong (too much oxygen or helium during deep dives).
High-rise construction presents many hazards such as being crushed, falling, and being impaled on rebar.

And as I stated before I was a farmer for nearly 30 years (had to pay college expenses somehow) and getting your hands and arms occasionally slashed by barbed wire, getting tagged by a horse or cow, slipping and falling face first into a tractor drawbar, being nailed by a 2000lb bull, and having implements drop on ones person; and doing the job in rain, storm, snow, ice, flood, high wind, and blazing summer heat; wile are not common occurrences are rather likely to happen unless one is extremely vigilant and some times it is going to happen like wile running fence and your horse spooks and explodes under you and you are just lucky enough not to fall into the fence, split your skull, break your back, neck, other parts of your anatomy, or worse having 1200 pounds of frightened equine coming down on top of you are things that can just happen without the slightest indication.

Now there are other positions, jobs, and other dangerous jobs that are equally dangerous, such as being a firefighter, or an infantryman during time of war, to name a few but as I said before I believe that the measure of danger in this case is directly proportional to probability of mortality over time. If your a postman or post woman you are not very likely to die of a paper cut, unless it has anthrax on it.

You missed logging. That is dangerous. It would be higher than farmer, me thinks. However, having worked as a firefighter (as well as a logger) in college, I don't think firefighting is all that dangerous. It is actually quite fun. A lot of work, but exciting. I think infantryman in heavy combat is by far the most dangerous job. In World War II, 98% of the infantrymen died or were seriously wounded per year. Pretty bad odds.

 

[Eimacman]

Wildman

You are correct, however logging is considered a type of agriculture in which trees are harvested. Even in the small ranch operation I ran for a time we harvested trees for our own needs. And you are correct in that being an infantryman during time of war is very dangerous, as would be a fire fighter's job.

Eimacman