Surprisingly dangerous jobs that you might not recognise

Everyone knows that there are plenty of jobs out there which might do them more harm than good, no matter how well-paying they are. But it’s not only the obviously dangerous jobs that you need to be aware of, because there are a surprising number of hazardous jobs all throughout the working world, and their dangers aren’t always readily identifiable. Below, we take a look at some of the positions you should be wary of if your health is your number one priority.

Any Office Job

You might be thinking ‘what can possibly go wrong when you’re sitting in a climate controlled room all day?’ Well, that answer is in the question: you’re sitting down all day. Because people work long hours, they usually rise out of bed, drive to their office’s underground parking structure, and then sit down all day. When work is over, they drive home and unwind in front of the television. This can lead to many health problems, especially ones to do with the heart. If you work in an office, make sure you’re getting plenty of exercise throughout the day.

Construction and Building Trades

The people who work in the construction and building trades don’t just have to worry about hitting their hand with a hammer and things like that. They’re also at a much higher risk of asbestos exposure, which causes cancer, especially if they’ve been working in the industry for many years (following the discovery of the effects of asbestos, governments enacted safety measures). If you’ve been exposed to asbestos, consider your legal options, as an attorney can help when suffering from mesothelioma because of asbestos exposure. If you’re entering the profession, make sure any company you’re thinking of working for has measures in place to prevent the dangers of asbestos.   

In the Shops

On the one hand, you might think that shops are safe places to be. After all, thousands of people are found in them every day, and the majority of them come away unscathed. But look at it another way: this is a place that has liquids, heavy goods, and chemicals all around, and of course hundreds of people passing through at pace. It’s a wonder that more people aren’t injured. The records show that shop workers sustain a higher percentage of at-work injuries than most other jobs. The good news is that most of these injuries are minor.

Working with Small Children and Animals

If everything runs exactly as it should, then it’s unlikely that anything will go wrong. In most cases, you can control the variables, and make sure that nothing out of the ordinary happens. This is not the case when it comes to two different kinds of wild beasts: children, and animals. Because they don’t have the same appreciation for danger as adults do, they can put themselves – and by extension you – in harm’s way, resulting in injuries.

Healthcare Roles

Hospitals and other healthcare buildings go to great lengths to ensure their premises are sanitary, but there’s no getting around the fact that these places are meeting spots for people with contagious diseases. With that being said, very often it’s not the patient’s illness that is the trouble, but the patient themself. It comes down to sheer numbers: while 99% of patients might be courteous, there’ll always be that 1% who causes trouble for the staff. In the UK, things have got so bad that there was recently a report that said most staff had been attacked at one stage or another; in all, about 200 hospital staff are physically attacked each day.

Jobs With Long Hours

You may have recently read the case of Miwa Sado, a Japanese woman who ‘died from overwork.’ In the developed nations, there’s a real problem with work; some people don’t have any, while others have far too much. The pressure to get results and look like you’re the hardest work makes millions of people work extra long hours just to get ahead. There are a whole bunch of side effects of working long hours, and the only good one is that you’ll have a bigger bank balance. All the others show that it’ll hurt your health by causing you more stress, increasing your chances of a heart attack (by as much as 67%), becoming obese, and even brain damage.

Conclusion

None of the above jobs are inherently dangerous, but they all carry dangers. Be aware of them, and do your best to have a working life that works for your health, not against it.

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