Report: 58 Massachusetts Workplace Fatalities in 2011

Fifty-eight workers across Massachusetts were killed on the job in 2011, including ten firefighters who died from work-related cancer and heart disease.

That’s according to an annual report released by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupation Safety and Health.

The report estimates that far more workers died from occupational diseases or were diagnosed with cancers caused by workplace exposures.

Falls caused more than a fifth of all occupational fatalities in the state in 2011 while motor vehicle incidents accounted for twelve occupational fatalities.

Half of those incidents involved a truck or auto crash. In the other six, a worker was struck or crushed by a vehicle.

Workplace violence also to be a major work hazard, blamed for the deaths of six workers.