Dauðaslys sjómanna 1966-1986

Abstract

This study was done to see whether mortality from accidents and drowning among seamen have changed through the years. This is a historical prospective study. The study population comprised 27884 seamen who were registered at the Seamens' Pension Fund. The members of the fund thus formed the cohort. It included both fishermen and sailors from the merchant fleet, most of them were deck crew. A record linkage was done with the National Register and the Register of Deceased to get information on water transport accidents (ICD-7 E850-E858), the study period was 1966 to 1986. The number of persons registered each calendar year at the Pension Fund was used as denominator. The mortality rate for water transport accidents was 89.4 per 105 and did not change markedly during the study period. The mortality rate for submersion was unchanged 73.2 per 105. Most of those who drowned were 20 to 24 years of age but the mortality rate for drowning was highest among those aged 45 to 54. It is conluded that further preventive measures are needed to lower the mortality from drowning which in Iceland seems higher than have been found in a recent study on fishermen in Canada.

Dauðaslys meðal sjómanna við Íslandsstrendur hafa ekki einungis verið áhyggjuefni Íslendinga. Mikið manntjón varð meðal erlendra fiskimanna fyrr á árum hér við land (1). Öryggismál sjómanna hafa því verið lengi til umræðu og margir starfað að þeim málum, áhugamenn um slysavarnir, yfirvöld sem og sjómenn og útgerðarmenn. Þær skoðanir hafa verið settar fram að á Íslandi hafi fólki verið fórnað í þágu lífsins í baráttu við óblíða náttúru landsins, en að nú sé liðin sú tíð að menn bíði örlaga sinna hugsunar- og athafnalausir því að árangur hafi náðst í slysavörnum (2). En hefur raunverulega dregið úr banaslysum og drukknunum meðal sjómanna? Í gögnum Lífeyrissjóðs sjómanna má skoða þessi mál nánar. Lífeyrissjóðurinn var stofnaður 1958 en gögn hans voru tölvutekin 1965-66. Tilgangur þessarar rannsóknar var að kanna tíðni dauðaslysa hjá meðlimum lífeyrissjóðsins með því að athuga dánarmein þeirra í opinberum gögnum Hagstofu Íslands.