1999 has claimed 33,900 lives

385,700 persons died in the first six months of this year, which is 15,400 more than for the corresponding period of 1998. At the same time, the number of deaths resulting from accidents, murders, suicides and other exposures decreased by 600 to 33,900. More than 913 persons received mortal work-related injuries.

As before, high injury rates were recorded in the coal industry. Thus, for the seven months of the current year, there were 12 accidents in Ukrainian mines, claiming 190 lives.

Violation of safety rules in the agricultural sector claimed 190 people, of whom 44 worked as machine operators. Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Ternopil, and Kharkiv oblasts have shown especially high industrial injury rates.

Director of the Committee for Supervision over Labor Protection press service Valentyn Kostrytsa states, «The accidents are largely caused by imperfect technical processes, unsatisfactory organizational management, and low level of training». Interestingly, obsolete equipment causes 2.5 times more accidents in small private businesses than in state-owned enterprises.

Based on the Statistics Committee data, 2,504 persons died in automobile accidents this year. Accidental poisoning was the cause of death of 2,278, including 129 children under the age of 16. Over 2,421 drowned, and 796 died in fires.

According to information of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 3,044 persons were murdered this year including 76 children, 7,337 committed suicide, and 4,493 people died of alcohol poisoning (4,285). The Statistics Committee notes that in recent years accidents, murders, suicides, and external circumstances rank third among causes of death in Ukraine and in the general death rate structure are behind only the number of deaths caused by cancer and cardiovascular diseases.