Mortality Study Turns Up Some Surprisingly Dangerous Jobs
Waitresses are five times more likely than other workers to die of lung diseases, and photographers and nurses are twice as likely as other workers to commit suicide, a state mortality study found.
The occupational mortality study, released by the California Department of Health Services, computerized nearly 180,000 death certificates filed in California over a three-year period ending in 1981 to match causes of death with occupations.
Many of the findings were obvious--construction workers are more likely than the general population to die from falls and accidents with heavy machinery, and bartenders are more likely to die of cirrhosis.
But other findings surprised the researchers, such as the significantly lower than average number of deaths from accidents among firefighters, police officers and security guards.
“It looks like these occupations that know they are more dangerous have taken steps to reduce the risks. I have no other explanation,” Gwen Doebbert, chief of the state’s health demographics section and project manager for the occupational mortality study, said in an interview.
Another finding, which Doebbert said was “a curiosity which I can’t explain” was the difference between black women and white women in housekeeping and related domestic jobs.
Domestic Safety Varies
The study, which in all categories studied deaths of persons ages 15 to 64 to focus on the working population, found that white women housekeepers and domestic workers had a death rate 30% lower than the average of other white women, making that the second-safest of 30 occupational groups for white women. But black women housekeepers and domestics had a death rate about 25% above the average of all black women, making that the sixth worst occupational category for black women.
In all other categories, there was a general correlation between mortality rates of black and white workers of the same sex in similar occupations, although overall mortality rates were higher for blacks than whites in similar occupations, as other studies have found.
Doebbert said the first phase of the study only collected data and didn’t attempt to draw conclusions. Later phases of the project, one of the largest of its kind in the world, will correlate occupational statistics with other data such as socioeconomic status, smoking and alcohol use histories and exposure to toxic substances.
It will also be available to state and other researchers in computer or printed form for research.
Among other findings of the mortality study:
- Nurses had lower mortality rates than the average of all women in every category except suicide, where they were about double the average. Male cosmetologists and barbers also were above average in suicides.
- Waitresses were five times more likely to die from lung diseases than other women, and telephone operators were about twice as likely to die from lung diseases as other women.
The highest death rates among black females--three times above average--was among launderers and dry cleaners, and the lowest among teachers.
- For white females, the highest mortality rate was among waitresses, and the lowest was among miscellaneous personal service jobs. White teachers were only about 20% below average mortality, while black teachers were 50% below average mortality.
- Among white men, the risk of death from falls and machinery accidents was eight times greater than average among foresters and loggers, boat workers, and miners and drillers, and five times greater than average among operating engineers and roofers.
- Among black men, the risk of death from falls and machinery accidents was four times the average among construction workers, three times the average among laborers and six times the average among boat workers.
- White male farm workers were below average in suicide, and black male farm workers had no reported suicides in the period of the study.
- Men in forestry, fishery, public safety, firefighting, postal service and public administration jobs were above average in cancer deaths.
- Among white men, teachers, physicians and dentists and business sales people, in that order, had the lowest mortality rate, while the highest rates, in order, were boatmen, forestry workers, roofers and laborers.
- Among black men, managers, business sales people and teachers, in that order, had the lowest mortality rates, and boatmen, laborers and construction workers had the highest.
- Among Asian men, heart disease and cancer of the digestive organs was about double the average among business proprietors and sales people.
