A national workplace safety organization has compiled a list of its top 10 deadliest workplace tragedies for 2010.
The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (NCOSH) notes that a few incidents on the list received lots of news media attention during the year.
However, much of the public will never hear the specifics about thousands of other workers who were also killed on the job.
NCOSH’s list:
- The Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20 that killed 11 workers, injured 17 others and resulted in the largest oil spill in U.S. petroleum industry history.
- The Upper Big Branch mine explosion in Montcoal, WV, that killed 29 workers on April 5.
- On Feb. 7, at the Kleen Energy Power Plant in Middletown, CT, a massive explosion killed 6 workers and injured 30 others.
- An explosion at Tesoro Refining in Anacortes, WA, on April 2 killed 7 workers.
- 2 brothers were killed and a third worker was injured in an explosion at the AL Solution Plant in New Cumberland, WV, on Dec. 9.
- On March 2 at Northwest Insulation in Artesia, NM, 1 worker was killed and three were injured when a fire ignited on top of a new crude oil tank.
- 2 workers were killed in an explosion at the Amtec Corp. rocket fuel manufacturing plant in Huntsville, AL, on May 5.
- Investigators believe carbon monoxide poisoning caused the death of two employees of Top Notch Cleaners of Valley, AL, after they used buffing machines powered by propane gas inside a facility on June 12.
- An explosion at the Horsehead Corp. zinc refinery in Monaca, PA, killed 2 workers and injured 2 others on July 22, and
- On July 23 at Northeast Energy Management in Cheswick, PA, 2 workers who were welding were burned to death when the tank they were working on exploded, throwing them 60 feet.
