Health researchers in Massachusetts and New Jersey discovered that Latinos have the highest rate of death from on-the-job injuries, according to a study published in the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Report on June 5. A third of those deaths occurred in the construction industry. In recent years, the most common causes of death for workers were falls and highway-related accidents.
One possible explanation for this discrepancy is that Latinos tend to work in high-risk industries as compared to other ethnic groups. However, language barriers and lack of training or supervision may also play a role.
The researchers calculated that the the annual death rate for Latino workers in 2006 was 5 per 100,000. That number was evening higher for Latino immigrants: 6 per 100,000 Caucasian workers had a rate of 4 per 100,000 and for African-Americans, that number was 3.7.