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In 2004 Alaska had no reported workplace homicides, deaths most often linked to armed robberies, said Peg Seminario, safety and health director for the national AFL-CIO, said from her Washington, D.C. office Friday.

Of Alaska's 40 workplace deaths in 2004, eight were on jobs involving natural resources, such as fishing and forestry, and 16 were in transportation and warehousing, jobs that include aviation and highway trucking.

With less than 300,000 people employed in the state, that works out to a rate of 12.7 workplace deaths per 100,000 workers in Alaska. That was second only to Wyoming, where the rate was 15.5 per 100,000. Nationally, there were 4.1 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2004, according to the report. The 5,703 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries nationwide in 2004 was up from 5,575.

"We have historically been No. 1," said Grey Mitchell, director of labor standards and safety for the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

In 1990, 82 people were killed on the job in Alaska, he said. The number fluctuates. In 2003 the number of workplace fatalities reached the lowest point in more than a decade - 28 deaths. The deathtoll rose again in 2002, to 42, according to the report.

"We're still way up there," Mitchell said.

The high rate is primarily due to the state having a small total workforce with many of those people working in some of the country's most dangerous jobs, faced with severe weather and geography.

The report covering 2004 workplace safety doesn't show specifically how many people were killed while fishing in Alaska waters. But people working in the category that included fishing, agriculture, forestry and mining, accounted for about 5 percent of the state's employment and 20 percent of the on-the-job deaths in 2004, Seminario said. Transportation and warehousing accounted for 8.5 percent of the workforce and 40 percent of the deaths.

Seminario said she didn't have a breakdown concerning the nature of the deaths, but noted it would include truckers and people in the aviation industry.

Fishing has always been a dangerous job in Alaska, Mitchell said. Just as with aviation, state government can't do much about workplace safety, he added. People fishing at sea are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Coast Guard, and air traffic is under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The state can make recommendations to improve safety, he said. "We don't have the hammer of enforcement."

Fishing is dangerous not just because of the elements but because of the tremendous competition, Mitchell said. He also sees safety improvements in the industry.

Jerry McCune, a board member and lobbyist for the United Fishermen's Association, as well as a fisherman himself, said the trade is becoming much safer. "It's getting a lot better."

That's partly because individual fishing quotas have replaced "24-hour derbies." People are taking less risk when they have six months to meet their halibut IFQ. "Now crab is that way," he added.

There also is more safety equipment, such as survival suits, in place, he added.

Seminario said on-the-job injuries in an area such as fishing are harder to track. Injuries are reported by employers, and people who are self-employed may not be reporting things that employers would.

Total injury and illness cases with days lost from work weren't much higher in Alaska than they were nationwide - 3.0 cases per 100 workers compared to 2.5 per 100 workers nationally.

Food processing has a high rate of injuries, due to repetitive motion and cuts with sharp objects, and nursing homes report a high rate of employee injuries due to heavy lifting, but both report few deaths.

"The things that kill people on the job may be different from the things that lead to injuries," she said.

Nationwide, transportation - including highway and air travel - was the leading cause of workplace fatalities, accounting for 43 percent, according to the AFL-CIO report, which took its numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor. The study was released Friday to mark Workers Memorial Day, observed worldwide for the 18th year.

• Tony Carroll can be reached at tony.carroll@juneauempire.com.