This 'Death Calendar' Shows How Dangerous US Working Conditions Used To Be

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death calendar

Easman, Crystal. "Death Calendar in Industry for Allegheny County" in Work-Accidents and the Law. © 1910 Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th Street, New York, NY 10065. Reprinted with Permission. Reprinting, reposting, or republishing is prohibited without written consent from the Russell Sage Foundation.

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From July 1906 through June 1907 in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 526 workers died in "work accidents"; 195 of these were steelworkers.

That's how bad things used to be in the United States before a century of labor reform.

Data from multiple sources show America's worker fatality rate declining from 61 deaths per 100,000 workers in 1913 to 37 per 100,000 workers in 1933 to 4 per 100,000 workers in 1999.

We came across these figures in a CDC report while researching the most dangerous jobs in America today, which by contrast are extremely safe. There were only 4,693 fatal injuries in America in 2011 — less than nine times as many as there were in Allegheny County in that single year.

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Dangerous work still happens every day, however, in Bangladeshi garment factories, Chinese coal mines, and other locations around the world.