Blunt Injuries from Large Fish in Alaska

Alaska is a dangerous place to work. Ships sink, helicopters crash, loggers can be killed or maimed while felling huge trees. And then there are the critters. A new study published in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine details occupational hazards Alaskan workers face due to animals.

(PRWEB) January 1, 2006 -- Alaska is a dangerous place to work. Ships sink, helicopters crash, loggers can be killed or maimed while felling huge trees. And then there are the critters. A new study published in the journal Wilderness & Environmental Medicine details occupational hazards Alaskan workers face due to animals.

In other states, poisonous insect bites and kicks from horses and cattle cause most animal-related injuries, according to the study. In Alaska, it's marine life that makes most of the trouble, the study found, while domesticated animals were responsible for just 26 percent of animal-related worker injuries.

Alaska workers hurt by animals seriously enough that they required hospitalization included outdoor guides attacked by bears; fish processors poisoned by venom from rockfish spines; fishers who slipped on jellyfish on deck, or suffered “blunt injuries from large fish” (which Flashlight thinks is probably a good name for a band); and one poor soul who was hurt by a muskrat. No details were given on the muskrat incident, but Flashlight wonders whether perhaps someone forgot their safe word.

Forty-three Alaska workers in 10 years were hospitalized due to animal-related injuries, the study found. Twenty-five workers died in the same period from animal-related injuries, in two events. The first was the crash of an AWACS jet at Elmendorf Air Force Base in 1995, in which 24 people, all those aboard, perished. The plane came down after two of its engines sucked in geese during takeoff. The victim of the other incident was working on a seismic survey for the oil industry in 1998 when he was fatally mauled by a bear.

- Scott Christiansen

Anchorage Press

Anchorage, Alaska

FROM THE ANCHORAGE PRESS

http://www.anchoragepress.com

December 30,2005

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