America's Scariest Jobs 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
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Jobs today can be stressful, low paying, monotonous or downright unsatisfying, but most people would prefer those situations to a job that scares them.
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Certain careers can be scary for many reasons and touch upon a variety of phobias, from the fear of death to the fear of performing in front of large crowds. Although these careers may not be scary to the people who do them on a daily basis, the general public certainly would not feel the same way.
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To get a sense of the jobs that push the limit for fright, CareerCast.com, a national job portal, identified the 10 scariest jobs of 2010. The list was produced by comparing phobia rankings associated with each job to see which ones would strike the most fear into the hearts of workers.
1. Forensic Entomologist
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Forensic entomology uses the study of insect and arthropod biology to criminal investigations, from death investigations to detecting drugs and poisons. Forensic entomologists can also be called in for "urban entomology," where pest infestations are the basis of litigation, or the scale of pesticide treatments can be understood.
"It's no surprise that Forensic Entomologist came out on top," says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. "Forensic Entomologists carve up cadavers in search of crime scene clues, but with a unique twist — their specialty is not the bodies themselves, but the insects living inside the bodies. Forensic Entomologists can determine the time or place a crime occurred based on the type of beetles, flies or maggots living inside the victim."
Phobias include Necrophobia (fear of dead bodies), Entomophobia (fear of insects) and Hemophobia (fear of blood). Forensic entomologists get the top spot as scariest job, not for the danger associated with the profession, but for the intense, creepy-crawly nature of the work that would surely scare off most people.
2. Miner
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Miners are tasked with extracting ore or minerals from the earth, which requires work in an often dangerous subterranean environment.
With the recent rescue of 33 Chilean miners and several highly publicized fatal mine collapses and explosions, it's no mystery why miners have a scary job.
The use of underground explosives, heavy machinery and the prospect of poor ventilation in some mines give potential workers numerous reasons to fear.
Claustrophobia (the fear of small spaces), Achluophobia (fear of darkness) and Mysophobia (fear of germs or dirt) are all fears associated with the mining profession.
3. Broadcast Tower Technician
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The job of Broadcast Tower Technician is far scarier than other high-flying jobs such as sky scraper window washers. Recently, when a video of a technician free climbing the top portion of a 1763 foot broadcast tower (30 feet taller than the Sears Tower) went viral online, many people got a taste of just how scary this job can be.
Broadcast towers, the tallest of which is the KVLY-TV tower in North Dakota at 2,063 feet, require manual maintenance, and technicians must physically climb to the top of the tower.
Often, the only safety mechanism is a harness that can be connected to the tower's structure only when the technician is not ascending or descending.
The main phobias associated with this job are Acrophobia (fear of heights) and Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning), which are real fears for Broadcast Tower Technicians.
4. Bomb Squad Technician
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Bomb squad technicians are tasked with controlling hazardous explosive devices — often in populated areas — and rendering them safe. Since even a small error could prove fatal and the job itself places workers in immediate danger, it's no wonder that bomb squad technicians are among the scariest jobs in America.
The profession was given center stage in the 2009 film "The Hurt Locker", but bomb squad technicians are not only confined to conflict zones. The LAPD, which employs 28 full-time bomb technicians on call 24 hours per day, responds to about 1,000 service calls each year, using special tools such as bomb suits, x-ray devices and bomb blankets. According to their website, approximately 22% of the calls they handle are live explosive devices, a scary prospect for even the most highly trained technicians.
The closest major phobias are Nucleomitiphobia (fear of nuclear bombs) and Thanatophobia (fear of dying), although you would also expect most people to have a general fear of explosions.
5. Field Epidemiologist
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Epidemiology is the study of disease in populations with the intent to understand, cure, and prevent infectious disease as they occur. Field Epidemiology, the application of epidemiological methods in non-clinical settings, is generally more risky than working in a traditional medical setting.
Often putting themselves in close proximity to communicable and little understood diseases, doctors working as field epidemiologists certainly put themselves at risk, which would scare anyone with Mysophobia (fear of germs, contamination or dirt) or Nosophobia (fear of contracting a disease).
Although scary for some, the work of field epidemiologists directly serves the greater good, working to build data on diseases in order to treat the cause and prevent outbreaks, which can happen both in urban areas and in poverty-stricken countries.
Click here to see the full list of America's Scariest Jobs
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