I recall hearing somewhere in history channel that the military industry was so dangerous and intensive, that the number of people that died and/or was injured from work related accidents in military industry, was close to the number of US soldiers that died in the war, which is like 400 thousand i think.
Is there any basis for this claim?
Actually, 291,557.
[From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties]
That Wikipedia link lists 416,800 in the military deaths column for the U.S.
You are talking about civilian accidents in factories and such? Seems ridiculously high, but that Wiki cite is about military and civilian deaths due to military actions (such as the bombing of cities). I’ll poke around some.
I found this pdf file about workplace deaths, with a table of annual deaths on page 114. The article itself is pretty strident that this numbers are drastic underestimations. But the claim on the chart something like 18,000 industrial death per year during WWII, which isn’t significantly different than the years before and after. Another section of the same paper gives an estimate of 25,000 per year. If the number is correct, that would put it far below combat deaths, which were on the order of several thousand per month.
The US did not mandate the reporting of workplace deaths until 1994!
… left 306,005 American soldiers dead as the result of combat. Another 571,822 sustained non-fatal wounds during the conflict (…) The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that each year between 1942 and 1945 there were some two million disabling or deadly industrial accidents, a total of more than six million. More than 75,000 Americans died or became permanently and totally disabled in industry during the war. Additionally, some 378,000 industrial workers suffered a permanent partial disability.
??? two million disabling or deadly industrial accidents,
Are they disabling accidents or deadly accidents? This line is highly un -understandable.
More than 75,000 Americans died or became permanently and totally disabled in industry during the war
again, were they permenatly disabled or dead?
Does this include all the people who died later from cancer due to the casual handling of stuff like radium and asbestos?
No, the cite I posted said that upwards of 100,000 people per year die due to work related illnesses. I’m guessing mostly lung diseases and cancers due to exposure to dangerous chemicals. And of course many of them die long after they’ve left the workplace.
Some were disabling accidents, accidents that did not result in death. Others were deadly accidents.
Same here. Some were permanently disabled, some died.
The numbers tell the whole story. The disabling accidents include everything that reporting regulations required, including many that were minor or temporary. The vast majority were minor, a smaller number were more serious and resulted in more lasting damage, an even smaller number resulted in death.