The 27 jobs that are most damaging to your health. Did you make the cut?
3http://www.businessinsider.com/the-most-unhealthy-jobs-in-america-2015-11
So I made it in at #23. Should I start planning for my demise now? Did your job make the list? What do you do to earn money in order to pay meh's bills? Do you like what you do or is there another profession you would prefer? What did you want to be when (and if) you grow up?
Personally, I love my job (which is obviously a Nuclear Medicine Technologist if you read the article). I enjoy knowing I'm able to help people daily and I lucked into a place where I work normal M-F hours with no call, which is rare for someone in my field. It took me a long time to get to the point where I found myself and knew what I wanted to do for a living. I guess I never really had any particular career aspirations as a kid so I bounced around jobs until my 30's when I went back to school.
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I didn't see cushy office job on the list, so I think I'm safe. I do run the risk of carpal tunnel, so there's that.
@ACraigL Or unknown environmental hazards in the AC vents!
@ACraigL don't forget blood clots in the legs and inhaling printer toner dust!
@ACraigL Don't forget Time Spent Sitting. I do a lot of that. :-/
Police, firemen and military are not on the list, so we must all work in non-hazardous environments and can expect long, healthy lives.
@rockblossom Must be nice to have such a cushy, non-dangerous life. All us cube lurkers are really taking one for the team, don't ya know?
@rockblossom The top risk listed for an airplane pilot is "prolonged periods of sitting".. That's definitely more hazardous than rapid lead poisoning injected between the eyes!
Ouch, my wife comes in at #4.
@Bogie Mine comes second. Or sometimes not at all.
WooHoo, #17!
What is going on with Podiatrists that has them so high on the list?
@Thumperchick x-rays and lots of airborne contaminants coming off of feet
@Lotsofgoats but I'd think a proctologist would run into more contaminants? It just caught me off guard.
@Thumperchick there's more dry floaty air stuff that podiatrists have to deal with, what with all the scraping and such
also lotsa fun chemicals to use!
@Lotsofgoats Makes sense. Thanks!
@Thumperchick Feet can be extremely disgusting. Ever see the toes of a diabetic who hasn't taken care of themselves? Warning: Grossness ahead.
When I was a student I had to image the feet of a homeless guy. His skin was sloughing off and smelled exactly like you can imagine. He already had a few toes removed but never had the sutures taken out. The skin was growing over the sutures and flakes were falling off in clumps. I was wise enough to cover the table with chux but that room was sanitized from end to end when I was done with him. I believe it was at that moment when the other Techs told me to just wait until I had students of my own and I could make them do all the disgusting cases. I've never worked anywhere that's had students so I still get the disgusting cases.
And that's just one example of why those of us in Radiology make the list...
@cinoclav Reading things like this make me value my upbringing as the child of a rural nurse. Procedures that should have been done at a hospital were routinely done at our kitchen table.
@cinoclav horf
@jaremelz
NSFWish (or young children) - speaking of surgery at the dinner table . . .
@Pavlov Sniff, takes me right back.
In all seriousness, she gave people stitches, took them out (@cinoclav, the smell of old sutures...shudder), removed casts, and dealt with a number of odd injuries. It was small logging town, and people there were both poor and distrustful of doctors. She got a call once from my father's friend who had what he called a splinter in his eye. He insisted that we go out to help him. His "splinter" was a 4 inch piece of wood sticking out of the corner of his eye.
She drove his ass to the hospital and dropped him off.
@jaremelz Being that olfaction tends to be the strongest of the senses that haunt you, I can still almost smell those feet. I think the worst I've ever experienced was when EMT's brought in a dead body that had been partially submerged for several weeks. We honestly thought the sewage system had backed up. You could smell it 4 floors up, on the opposite side of the hospital.
@cinoclav mmm... mom used to be a lab tech, so she got to work with all sorts of fun samples like sputum and feces and various other swabs and scrapings. the worst specimen they ever got was a toe. a toe!
@cinoclav Having smelled that particular odor, I can agree that yes, you never get it out of your memory. Years later, I can still recall it perfectly. Which isn't something I'm thrilled about.
I passed on nursing school, and instead did home care for for disabled for a few years. Let's just say, I'm familiar with the many smells and sights that accompany when bodies fail. Yeast, there's a good one.
@cinoclav
For further reading, if you enjoy this sort of thing:
Mmmm, I worked in # 19 #9 # 8 on the list..for total of 13 and 1/2 years; worked as refinery/chemical plant operator, boiler operator, and water system plant operator ( worked in these jobs on this list but also worked in other jobs in refinery/ chemical plant operations). Also, I am a Certified Industrial firefighter (from Texas A & M Firefighting school) required training since I was a member of the fire brigade at the reinery/ chemical plants. Other jobs I worked in aren't on the list but could be hazardous, namely, transporting convicted inmates to prisons in Texas.
@AttyVette - Are you now an attorney driving a Corvette?
@AttyVette All that exposure perfectly explains the puns.
@KDemo I am an attorney though not currently working as one . I have two Corvettes, an 82 and a 2014. I don't drive either of them a lot ..5k on the 2014 I bought in January 2014. I am am member of our local Corvette club and take my cars to various car shows (just for fun)! My DD is actually a 350z....
@cinoclav aww the 'pun'ishment of it all..yes you learn to make light of situations ..yes my sayings are puns but people either love them or hate them...they are corny but oh "shucks" ...
@KDemo ! My 2014 ..it's fun to drive but paying for it not so much fun :(
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@AttyVette - Very cool. You have a lot of eclectic experience in your work life. Sounds like you kept reinventing yourself.
@conandlibrarian lol that Simpson video is da "bomb"-- I had a " blast" watching it and it didn't even have "sub" titles in it!
Any job that involves "working" or puts you in proximity to "work" or "people at work" is gonna be the most dangerous job.
Only carpal tunnel and paper cuts in a library, so I'm genuinely safe :/
@luvche21 Not in the least. Matter of fact, maybe we should ask for the list to be recalculated. Your job might kill you!
@cinoclav I don't even want to think about that!
I didn't make the list. I don't think these folks are giving proper respect to the dangers of, for instance,
1) sitting on my ass
2) going to meetings
3) dealing with spreadsheets and Powerpoint and shit
4) politics (local government and office)
5) technology and computers and shit
6) stupid people
@joelmw - Oh, but they did calculate #1 on your list:
"3. Time spent sitting: 74" Sitting is a real hazard. Wish there were a way to quantify the damage done by stupid people. Haha.
@KDemo @joelmw
@KDemo Yeah, I noticed that. I just think I take sitting on my ass to a whole new level, that's all.
@joelmw Then there's the Office Dweller's Trifecta: The mental and emotional damage from being forced to (1)sit, in (2)long meetings, run by (3) stupid people too high in the management chain to ignore.
@rockblossom
@joelmw
I'm a registered nut, er nurse. They split it out interestingly. So my type didn't count. Although we have infection risk coupled with drivers and idiot family members
@Cerridwyn My wife is a vascular surgical nurse. Her typical work day includes several hours spent wearing a lead apron while performing surgical procedures under live x-ray to place stents and repair aneurisms. I would assume that they are routinely exposed to more radiation than a podiatrist, yet they didn't make the list either.
Auto mechanics are exposed to asbestos, airborne metal dust and other contaminants, a wide variety of industrial solvents including neurotoxins, loud noise, heavy metals, constant skin contact with petroleum products, arc radiation, and other hazardous materials. In addition the risk of injury from working outdoors in below zero weather, heavy lifting, tool slippage, high voltage hybrids, slippery concrete floors, loading a tow truck on the berm of a busy interstate, or working under 3 ton vehicles suspended above your head is a daily occurrence. Some of the customer vehicles we have to get in that are full of rotting garbage, cigarette butts, used kleenex, and cups of tobacco spit could probably be considered biohazards too.
I suppose podiatrists and veterinary assistants have it rougher though.
Where on the list are the bank tellers? seriously I never got sick this often till I worked for the bank. 4 of us at on branch got the dang flu over Christmas. Blegh
@Foxborn Ya I had to handle some really nasty money from the gas stations when I worked at a Bank.
@darkzrobe I've had some nasty ones, but i have heard of and seen worse. you know it's not a good day when you are spaying Lysol on your cash
@Foxborn The cash counters spraying the gas station sadness fragments all in the air and your face and clothing... I do not miss that job.
I work for Mediocre. I had to take a shot of Malort the other day.
@galmaegi - You win the thread.
@galmaegi Never forget.
@hollboll @galmaegi Do you think dropping the Miracle Berry into the Malort would do anything?