http://disqus.com/by/landcraft/enFri, 05 Dec 2008 11:28:40 -0000http://ehstoday.com/construction/news/ehs_imp_38047/#comment-4205044<p>The assertion by Lekutis and others that tower climbers is the most dangerous job is based entirely on faulty data and voodoo statistics and I have challenged Mr. Foulke, the Assistant Secretary of Labor, Don Doty of NATE and Craig Lekutis of Wireless Estimator to stop regurgitating unsubstantiated information.</p><p>The truth is the deaths per 100,000 are 0.624 for 2003, 0.471 for 2004, 0.870 for 2005, 0.669 for 2006 and 0.653 for 2007. The industry “experts” like to use the tower climber population figure of 9,800 when calculating the fatality rate and that would be statistically appropriate IF tower climber erectors were a Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) or were assigned their own North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. Since they have neither the only appropriate method for calculating the figure is to list all the fatalities by NAICS code, determine the population size by looking it up on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) website then repeat that for each and every death in a given year. Total the fatalities then total the BLS populations, divide fatalities by population and multiply by 100,000.</p><p>Michael S. Landa<br></p>landcraftFri, 05 Dec 2008 11:28:40 -0000