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there are many jobs that are commonly understood to be dangerous to your health. many people know the risk of these positions and continue to do their jobs diligently nonetheless. after all, we all have to make a living, and many people love what they do. 




however, a recent study may cause us to rethink some of the things we thought we knew about which jobs are safe and which are not. it could also cause some to rethink their career goals. these researchers did their due diligence, and through a very scientific process, put together a list of the most unhealthy jobs in america. 




while many on the list would surprise no one<u+2013> nuclear medicine technologist, for example<u+2013> there are some that may surprise even the people in the positions. possibly the most shocking on the list was their number one most unhealthy career in america: dentists, dental surgeons and dental assistants. 




other surprises on the list include flight attendant, veterinarian and podiatrist. while many of these may not seem to make sense at first, after a closer look, one begins to understand the thinking and the process behind the rankings. for some, it includes the unusual amount of time spent sitting down. for others, factors like possible exposure to infectious disease explain their place on the list. unfortunately for dentists, they hit a double-whammy on those factors plus several other aspects of the job that are viewed as unhealthy. 




the list also includes several of the old hits like chemical plant and systems operator, radiologist and derrick operators. however, even the order of some of these and the dangerous attributes attributed to them can be surprising. 




perhaps i shouldn<u+2019>t admit this, but there were even some on the list that were surprising simply because of their existence. one of those was histotechnologist; i didn<u+2019>t even know that was a thing. in case you are more or equally uneducated as i, a histotechnologist is part of a medical laboratory team that prepares tissue for analysis and diagnosis of disease. if you did know that, you probably are a histotechnologist. 




the information used in determining this list comes from the occupational informational network, or o*net. o*net is a u.s. department of labor database that contains detailed information about hundreds of careers and occupations. it provides a host of useful facts for job seekers, human resources professionals, students and researchers. 




in order to analyze occupations by the possible impact they could have on workers<u+2019> health, the researchers used o*net measures of six different health risks and averaged them together. the types of risk include: exposure to contaminants exposure to disease and infection exposure to hazardous conditions risk of minor burns, cuts, bites and stings time spent sitting
the most unhealthy jobs in america
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