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For instance, when the media reported on the sawmill explosions in northern B.C.that killed four workers and seriously burned dozens more, journalists virtually never mentioned that all the victims were men.

Why the reluctance to look at male “wounds?” Does society simply expect men to do the so-called dirty work?

In Canada, men are 20 more times as likely as women to die in the workplace.

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WorkSafeBC spokesman Scott McCloy this week provided information on the six occupations with the highest numbers of fatalities — and men predominate in all them.

Sixty-three truck drivers were killed on the job in B.C. between 2011 and 2015. All were men.

Thirty-seven men were killed in construction and related fields between 2011 and 2015, along with four women.

Thirty-one B.C. firefighters died on the job in the same period. So did 19 carpenters, 17 chainsaw and skidder operators and 17 steamfitters and pipefitters. All were men.

That’s largely because roughly 19 in 20 employees in these high-risk occupations are male, according to the 2011 National Household Survey.

The social status link

University of B.C. professor Mieke Koehoorn, who specializes in gender, work and health, adds there is often a social-status element to male workplace injuries.

“The risk of death and severe injury are largely borne by men in lower socio-economic groups, so there is a class, as well as a gender dimension,” says Koehoorn, who notes young lower-income men typically take the most precarious jobs.