Interpol

Ministerio de educacion
Colegio Adventista bilingüe de David
Reading Module
Name:_____Katherine Castillo_____. Level: __ 12th Sciences_____
Bimester: _____ I Term 2009_____

Danger and Daring

Before You Read: Scanning for More Exact or Colorful Synonyms
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Principio del formulario

Scan the reading for the more exact, concise, or colorfulsynonyms. The phrases are listed in the order of their appearance. Then read the passage all the way through.
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Just Doing Their Jobs

What are the most dangerous occupations and why do people do them? This is a question that interests safety officials and the media alike. You might be surprised to hear that along with the obvious choices such as police officer, detective, or security guard, a 1995study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) classified truck drivers, taxi drivers, farmers, and construction workers as having some of the most hazardous occupations in the United States.

The BLS assesses occupational hazards in a variety of ways. First, it looks at what's called "the fatality frequency count," which counts the number of fatalities for any given group compared to totalfatalities for the year among all workers. Truck drivers, for instance, have the highest fatality frequency count, meaning that of all job-related fatalities, the most were among truck drivers. This figure, however, is influenced by the high number of truck drivers as compared to other occupations.

The BLS study also analyzes "fatality rates," calculated by dividing the fatalities in any given group(truck drivers, farmers, laborers, etc.) by the total number of workers within that group, expressing the risk of death within that occupation. Analyzing the data in this manner, it was found that fishers actually had the highest rate of job fatality, and truck drivers come in only ninth.

Finally, the BLS uses the previous two numbers to calculate the "index of relative risk": the risk of acertain occupation compared to all workers in general. For instance, a taxi driver's index of relative risk is 9.4, meaning that in 1995 a taxi driver was 9.4 times as likely to suffer a work-related fatality as the average worker. The occupation found to be most hazardous, with the highest index of relative risk, was that of commercial fishers: they are about 21 times as likely as the average worker tosuffer a fatal injury on the job. Of course with this method of analysis, other, less prevalent occupations such as elephant trainer or bounty hunter could be classified as more dangerous due to the low number of people actually holding those positions. For this reason it's important to look at the fatality frequency count and fatality rates as well as the index of relative risk.

In addition tofatality, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also analyzed injuries and illnesses occurring in the workplace as well as the recuperation time for those injuries. They calculated a "chance of injury" index, concluding that the highest chance of injury occurs among laborers (through contact with a work-related object), and nursing aides and orderlies (through overexertion). A study by the U.S.Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Statistics performed between 1992 and 1996 examined the risk of violence in the workplace. The results showed that about two million people in the U.S. are victims of violent crime in the workplace every year. The highest number of violent incidents happened to law enforcement officers (306 per 1,000 during the five-year period). Also included in the list ofmost vulnerable to criminal victimization were taxi drivers (higher even than private security guards), convenience store clerks, bartenders, and teachers. In the majority of cases, fatalities were caused by firearms. These violent hazards often increase when a job is performed outside of a factory or office, alone, or at night. Those who handle money are also at higher risk. According to the BLS,...