Hacker News Reader

Comment by aswanson | Hacker News Reader

It's not even in the top 10 most dangerous occupations: https://www.ajc.com/news/world/these-are-the-deadliest-jobs-...

Full list of occupations ranked by fatal injuries per 100k workers. The referenced article isn't that useful because it doesn't provide any numbers to do an absolute comparison.

                                           Fatal injuries per
  Rank  Job                                100k workers
  ====  ===============================    =================
  1.    Fishers                            100.0
  2.    Logging workers                     87.3
  3.    Aircraft pilots                     51.3
  4.    Roofers                             45.2
  5.    Refuse material collectors          34.9
  6.    Steel workers                       33.3
  7.    Truck drivers                       26.9
  8.    Farmers, ranchers                   24.0
  9.    Groundskeeping workers              21.0
  10.   Electrical power-line installers    18.6
  11.   Misc agricultural workers           17.7
  12.   Construction workers                17.4
  13.   Helpers, construction trades        17.3
  14.   Maintenance and repair workers      16.6
  15.   Grounds maintenance workers         15.9
  16.   Construction laborers               14.3
  17.   Mechanics                           13.1
  18.   Police                              12.9
  19.   Construction equipment operators    11.8
  20.   Mining machine operators            11.7
  21.   Taxi drivers                        10.5
  22.   Athletes                             9.5
  23.   Painters                             8.9
  24.   Firefighters                         8.9
  25.   Electricians                         8.4

Why is aircraft pilots so high? I'm assuming it isn't just commercial airline pilots?

Probably includes helicopters.

The airline pilots who are flying from NYC to LA have a fairly safe job. It's the bush pilots flying between remote places in Alaska who are driving up the statistics; basically all of the fatal air crashes in the US are in Alaska.

The danger involved for fire and police is highly dependent upon geography and role/rank.

It strikes me as a bit disingenuous to say it's not even in the top 10 when it's number 18, according to that list. At that point we're talking about a difference of degree, not category. If anything your citation supports the idea that police officers endanger their lives.

It would be disingenuous if he said “it wasn’t in the top 10” when it was #11. #18 is nowhere near the top 10.

Even a garbage collector is three times more likely to die on the job than a police officer.

https://qz.com/410585/garbage-collectors-are-more-likely-to-...

18 is quite close to 10, in an absolute sense. The context of that citation is a claim that it's statistically inaccurate to say police officers risk their lives. That claim is demonstrably not borne out by statistics. Out of the universe of available professional work, being a police officer is #18 in risk. It's a rather small consolation that they're not eight jobs higher up the chain in terms of risk, considering there is essentially no chance of e.g. my monitor killing me as I sit at my desk.

A valid takeaway from the cited list is that being a police officer isn't literally the most dangerous thing you can do for work. An invalid takeaway is that being a police officer isn't dangerous.

How close 18 is to 10 in absolute sense has zero meaning. So does saying "10 most dangerous jobs" without quoting actual numbers. What if job 11 is 100x more safe than job 10? What if job 18 is 100000x more safe than job 10?

Being a police officer in a suburb where there is no crime does not belong in the same analysis as being a police officer in a crime filled area. Being a parking compliance officer and an undercover drug enforcement agent also have wildly different risk exposure. To compare these various jobs similarly from a risk assessment point of view by bucketing them under "police officers" is ridiculous.

Being a nurse or care technician in a hospital is more dangerous than being a cop in terms of being physically assaulted. They are often females on 1-to-1 assignment with mentally ill men that often attempt to attack & rape them.

I'm not sure if you just intended to reply to someone else, or just ignored the words I wrote completely. Comparing these professions on a global basis is dumb. Nurses who work in environments where they are exposed to convicts or the mentally ill are at a higher risk of assault than those who work in pediactrics. Comparing risk-laden professions by just putting everyone into a gigantic bucket by a job title in order to say "which job is more dangerous" defies a basic understanding of what people in these fields actually experience depending on where their job is, their position, and their role (disclosure: son of a firefighter, brother in law of a cop, husband to a physician)

The point is, you can render specifity to the point of uselessness. Of course there are specific situations & circumstances where a given occupation is more risk prone than another, but global averages are where public perception & policy are set & laws are made. Such is life.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com