I’d Love To Read About: Dangerous Jobs

Have you ever learned a strange fact or seen an unusual thing and thought, I wish there were more books about that? It happens to me all the time. Authors, if you’re listening, here are four dangerous jobs that I wish somebody would write about. (Or take inspiration from. I’m not picky!)

I’d Love To Read About: Dangerous Jobs

Community Plague Doctor

Art source & more info.

You’ve probably seen these creepy doctors before. During the bubonic plague in Europe, towns hired plague doctors to treat sick people, keep records of the dead, and to stop the spread of disease. Community doctors usually weren’t well-trained. They were often young, inexperienced doctors who didn’t own their own medical practice yet.

Plague doctors wore bird-like masks because they believed that diseases came from bad-smelling air. The mask’s “beak” was filled with herbs, flowers, hay, and other good-smelling things. The doctors believed they could cure a patient’s bubonic plague by putting leeches on the swollen parts of the sick person’s body. The leeches would suck out the disease.

Did the leech treatment work? No.

Leech collector

Photo source & more info.

For much of human history, doctors believed that covering a patient in leeches could purge the body of “bad humors.” The leeches would suck out the infection or whatever else was wrong.

But, where did the doctors get the leeches? That’s where leech collectors come in. The collectors were usually women or children who’d wade into a bog and stand there until leeches covered their skin. Then they’d pull the leeches off and sell them to doctors. Leech bites often got infected and could bleed for up to 10 hours. The job didn’t pay well. Collectors sometimes died from blood loss or infections. Also, yuck. Leeches.

Mammoth tusk hunter

More info & awesome photos of tusk hunters.

Let’s look at a modern job. This one isn’t exactly legal. In remote areas of Siberia, men risk their freedom to collect the tusks of extinct mammoths. Siberia has a thick layer of ice beneath the ground that has protected mammoth bones for 400,000+ years. The men use high-pressure pumps and water from nearby rivers to blast away the dirt and melt the ice. Hunting for tusks is a physically demanding job that can result in jail time if the men are caught.

Tusk hunting is environmentally destructive, which is one reason why it’s illegal. Blasting through dirt and permafrost with hoses causes silt to run downhill and clog rivers. Silt kills the fish and plants. The rivers become lifeless mud pits.

If the job is dangerous and illegal, why do people bother looking for tusks? In Siberia, the average monthly salary is under $500. Chinese buyers pay $35,000 for a mammoth tusk.

Alligator wrestler

Photo source & more info.

Yes, people do wrestle live alligators for fun, but it wasn’t always a pointlessly dangerous pastime. The alligator wrestling “technique” was first developed by southeastern Native Americans who hunted alligators for food and skins. They perfected a way to catch gators without losing a limb. As Europeans moved into the southeast and changed the natives’ way of life, alligator wrestling demonstrations became entertainment for Europeans and a way for Native Americans to earn money. By the early 1900s, alligator parks were popular tourist attractions in the southeast. Wrestling gators in front of tourists became a job that could pay the bills.

Which jobs would you like to see more often in books?