Studies on EMS fatalities and injury rates

[Arctickat]

With EMS week coming up I thought I would bring awareness to the dangers of the profession. I've reviewed a few studies that show how dangerous it is to be in EMS. Problem is, they're ll over the place.

In this one it's 12.7/100,000 from 1992 to 1997

http://www.emsedsem.org/Prior%20Articles/EMS_Fatalities%20from%20JEMS.pdf

This one from 2003 - 2007 indicates 7.0/100,000

http://www.jems.com/article/health-and-safety/studies-show-dangers-working-ems

Evidently, EMS has gotten safer, but here's my issue.

How is the data categorised? For example, depending on who one talks to, the 80+paramedics killed in the WTC attacks were grouped in as firefighters, even though they were there in a medical capacity. It got me wondering, about tiered responses and such.

Canada doesn't have a whole lot of combined EMS/Fire services in comparison to the States. When a medic is killed, he usually doesn't get the firefighter label pinned on him. Considering that tiered response fire depts. have, in most cases, EMT trained staff, it got me thinking about fatalities while responding to medical calls. If a firefighter is killed or injured during a medical response, should that statistic fall under firefighting or EMS?

My thoughts are that the NHTSA or what ever applicable agency is responsible for these studies needs to create clear definitions of who should be included or excluded from the data. My feeling is that any firefighter with EMS training conducting a response for medical assistance should be classified as an EMS provider rather than a firefighter for the purpose of accurate data collection.

Thoughts?