Target Assistants
Source: Blogspot
This next job falls into the same kind of category as lion tamer–but with double the danger. Remember seeing those absurdly terrifying knife throwing acts at the circus when you were a kid? Well, just think about the knife thrower’s assistant for a second. One accidental slip or a sneeze and the knife could end up bonding with someone’s stomach, not a nicely-lacquered cork board. If you’re still not convinced, have a watch of this pair of professionals, and take note of how the blades whip past the assistant’s hair.
Steeplejacks
Source: Flickr
Sometimes known as roofing, the art of steeplejacking carries a similar level of danger to that of standard construction work, but with the added risk of using alarmingly unstable buildings as your work space. Tasked with scaling church steeples and clambering onto rooftops, risks may vary from sliding down the tiles and falling off the edge of a house, to more minor (but still painful) rope burns. Often precariously perched on top of old and uneven structures, the steeplejack also runs the risk of meeting their untimely and grisly demise by falling down chimney shafts, like a notorious case in England when a steeplejack fell 50 meters to his death down an old mill chimney when his scaffolding collapsed. The job title even carries the risk of being shot down by a sniper!
Source: The Daily Mail
Fishermen
Source: WordPress
This last entry may come as quite a surprise. When thinking about fishermen, images of ruggedly individualistic, surly sea captains with bushy beards and little fishing boats often spring to mind. You couldn’t be more wrong. Particularly for deep sea fishermen, there’s a whole menagerie of hazards that come with the career. Often having to cope with the crippling isolation that comes with spending months alone at sea, the risks of drowning, being lost at sea, contracting an illness and not making it back to shore in time or even being crushed to death by a mishap with heavy fishing equipment are incredibly high. A staggering 116 fishermen out of every 100,000 lose their lives to the sea every year.
Source: Vertical Way Around
