Anchorage Daily News

April 18: A state-chartered helicopter crashes near the Glenn Highway. Four dead.

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March 23: A fishing vessel sinks in the Bering Sea. Five dead.

Dec. 3: A medical response chopper disappears in Prince William Sound. Four dead.

Many jobs in Alaska come with risks.

"We're battling the elements. We have the fishing, the flying," said Nancy Hill, a research analyst for the Alaska Department of Labor.

The rate of work-related deaths is declining in Alaska but federal data shows the state still has the nation's highest worker death rates, said Peg Seminario, director of occupational safety and health for the AFL-CIO in Washington D.C.

On Thursday, the union published a report of work-related injury and death statistics for the 50 states, called "Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect."

The union has been publishing the report for 17 years. Its Alaska findings match death and injury statistics published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 2006, the last year for which federal data was available, Alaska had the nation's highest rate of work-related deaths and the fourth-highest rate of work-related injury and illness, according to the data.

Alaska lost its "worst" in the nation title for four years after 2001. In that interim, Wyoming and Montana jockeyed for the highest workplace fatality rate.

Each of these states -- Alaska, Wyoming, Montana -- traditionally has high employment in natural resources, such as logging, mining and oil and gas drilling. In Alaska, many people also work in other high-risk occupations: commercial fishing and aviation, state and union officials said.

"There's a lot of dangerous industries making up a significant part of the economy," Seminario said.

She said the goal of the union's report is to show political leaders and the public the trends in workplace safety.

"What we see is some disturbing news," she said. Nationwide, the number of workplace fatalities went up in 2006 from the prior year -- from 5,734 to 5,840 deaths, she said.

SOME GOOD TRENDS

The report does show some positive safety trends for Alaska, said Gray Mitchell, state director of labor standards and safety.

"We've had the farthest to go of any state and we've made tremendous progress," he said.

In 2001, Alaska's worker death rate was 22.6 deaths per 100,000 workers -- the worst statistic by far in any state, Mitchell said. Sixty-four people died that year.

It used to be even worse. For example, in 1992, 91 Alaska workers died.

In 2006, Alaska had 45 workplace deaths. The fatality rate was 13.8 deaths per 100,000 workers. That was a sharp increase from 2005, when there were 29 deaths and the fatality rate was 8.2 deaths per 100,000 workers.

The rate of injuries and illnesses has improved since 2001, when at least 8.5 workers out of every 100,000 were injured or sick, according to a sampling of 2,600 Alaska businesses.

Barbara Williams, an Anchorage activist who leads the Alaska Injured Workers' Alliance, said the injury rate in Alaska is much higher than the statistics indicate. She said many workers who contact her for assistance say they don't report their injuries because they are afraid of losing their jobs.

This makes the injury statistics misleading, but much worse, it means those workers do not get the medical attention they need, she said.

There are other reasons that workers decide not to report an injury, she said. Some feel pressure because their bosses have made it clear that they don't want a bad injury rate.

And some Alaska employers create a disincentive for their employees to report an accident by providing bonuses to those with a good safety record, she said.

RISKY INDUSTRIES

Most workplace fatalities in Alaska involve transportation or fishing, Mitchell said.

The April 15 and Dec. 3 chopper crashes and the March 23 sinking of the Alaska Ranger fishing vessel are examples.

Federal investigators suspect poor weather contributed to the April 15 helicopter crash, which killed an Era Helicopters pilot and three state employees. A 14-year-old boy survived the crash, which occurred during a routine trip to service telecommunications towers along the Glenn Highway.

In December, foul weather hampered the search for four people traveling from Cordova to an Anchorage hospital in a LifeGuard helicopter. The body of the flight nurse and some wreckage appeared on the north shore of Passage Canal near Whittier. The search for the remaining victims -- a patient, pilot and a paramedic -- was suspended a week later.

Federal officials are still investigating the Alaska Ranger sinking in the Bering Sea. Five died. Hearings on the disaster wrapped up this week. Survivors testified about rips in survival suits and drinking on board. Coast Guard officials have said it is still unclear why the ship sank.

Mitchell said he believes recent improvements in Alaska's statistics are due in part to safety initiatives by the state, the Coast Guard, federal highway officials and the FAA.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

Alaska worker safety: 2006 statistics

Work-related deaths: 45

Industries with the most deaths:

• Fishing: 10

• Transportation: 9

• Mining, quarries, oil and gas: 5

Nonfatal injuries and illnesses involving days away from work: 4,440*

Occupations with the most injuries and illnesses:*

• Transportation: 760

• Construction and resource extraction: 560

• Farming, fishing, forestry: 100

* The illness and injury statistics do not count every case in Alaska and many occupations are lumped in broad categories. The data comes from an annual survey of about 2,600 Alaska businesses that pay unemployment insurance.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

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