Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 2, 1993                   TAG: 9310020153
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

40% OF WOMEN'S DEATHS AT WORK: MURDER

Some figures from the first comprehensive government accounting of how people die on the job:

Women account for only 7 percent of the fatalities, but 40 percent of their workplace deaths are from murders.

Most of the people killed at work are men, 93 percent, and most of them die in accidents. Fifteen percent are murdered, said the report, released Friday.

Officials suggested the difference in murders was due to the number of women exposed to crime by working late at night.

Highway vehicle accidents caused the most job-related fatalities, 18 percent. The study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that homicides were a close second with 17 percent of the total, or 1,004 deaths.

"Relative to common perceptions, sales work is dangerous," Labor Secretary Robert Reich said at a news briefing. "There are a lot of all-night convenience stores that simply are the scenes of crimes."

Although men represent 55 percent of the work force, they had 93 percent of all job-related deaths, the study found.

The disproportion of deaths among men and women workers was attributed to differences in the industries and occupations in which men and women are typically employed.

Another anomaly: The self-employed and those working in family businesses accounted for 20 percent of the workplace fatalities - double their share of the nation's workers.

Reich said the study represented the first national census of occupational deaths. It will be used in government efforts to improve the safety and health of workers.

Keywords:
FATALITY