Safety last: safety in the Alaska workplace.

• Author: Gerhart, Clifford

There's a lot of reasons -- including attitudes -- why Alaska ranks last in worker safety. There's also a lot of things that can be done.

Harvesting huge logs and wrestling them into place on steep, treacherous slopes. Fishing from a pitching, rolling deck in the turbulent waters of the Bering Sea. Flying through dangerous mountain passes in foul weather. These are the working conditions for many Alaskans, and the reason that so many of the state's workers -- 87 in 1992 -- die on the job.

According to figures kept by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Alaska's record for on-the-job deaths in the period from 1980 through 1989 was 34.8 per 100,000 workers, almost five times the national average.

And fatalities don't tell the whole story of how dangerous a work place the state can be. According to figures collected by the Alaska Department of Labor's Standards and Safety Division, the total economic impact of work-related injuries and fatalities in Alaska for 1992 was $582.4 million.

That figure includes insurance losses, lost productivity, increased social services, increased vocational rehabilitation costs and employee replacement training costs. Alaskans suffered a total of 9,933 lost-time injuries, according to Labor Department figures.

Dr. George Conway, chief of the Alaska Activity division of NIOSH, says that there is probably even more to the story than that. "Deaths are better documented. The law is vague about reporting injuries."

Injuries not only cost society as a whole, but impose a real financial burden on victims and their families. Economists at the RAND Corp. estimate that 45 percent of treatment costs and lost income fall on the injury victim and his or her family. The remaining 55 percent comes from a variety of public and private funds such as private health insurance, employer-provided benefits, workers compensation and other public programs.

Real Cost of Doing Business

Things don't seem to be improving much. In 1991, Alaska suffered 79 on-the-job fatalities -- eight fewer than last year. Don Study, an investigator with the Alaska Department of Labor, notes that the number of claims for injuries has increased from 22,969 in 1990 to 27,742 in 1991 and 29,323 in 1992. He notes that the rate of lost-time injuries has gone down, but suspects that may be due to decreased work.

Two things safety specialists agree on: Even given conditions in Alaska, most accidents are preventable, and that...