The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act, which protects the health, welfare and safety of workers, has helped saved the lives of thousands of workers since it was signed into law in 1970 but although the act has helped make workplaces safer, many workers remain at risk of work-related injury and even death.
The newly released "Death on the Job" report by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), which analyzes work-related deaths and injuries based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows that as of 2012, over 4,600 American died on the job and about 50,000 died from work-related diseases.
The report, which was released Thursday, shows that North Dakota is the most dangerous state for workers with 17.7 deaths per 100,000 workers, which is five times higher than that of the national rate of 3.4 deaths per 100,000 workers. The state's fatality rate has also notably worsened from its 2007 rate of 7 deaths per 100,000 workers.
AFL-CIO director of safety and health Peg Seminario said that North Dakota is the deadliest and most dangerous state for workers because of its oil-and-gas boom with worker fatality rate of 104.0 per 100,000 in the mining and oil and gas extraction sector. Fatality rate in its construction sector is similarly high with 97.4 per 100,000 which is nearly ten times the nation's average of 9.9 per 100,000.
Wyoming is the second deadliest state for workers with 12.2 deaths per 100,000, followed by Alaska with 8.9 deaths per 100,000, Montana with 7.3 and West Virginia with 6.9 deaths per 100,000 workers. The safest state to work in appears to be Massachusetts with only 1.4 per 100,000 worker fatality rate. It is followed by Rhode Island with 1.7 deaths per 100,000, Connecticut with 2.1 and New Hampshire and Washington with worker fatality rate of 2.2 per 100,000.
The report also noted that a large percentage of job fatalities is not due to accidents but violence. In 2012, there were more than 700 deaths caused by assaults and violent acts and homicide is responsible for about 475 workplace deaths.
"Today the numbers of workers being killed and injured is still too high and unacceptable," Seminario said. "Over the last several years, the rate for injuries and illnesses has essentially flatlined."
