Speaking to reporters today, the territory's medical health officer urged people to recognize that the real threat to Yukoners' health and safety can be addressed by simple safety precautions rather than drugs and vaccinations.

Dr. Brendan Hanley was behind the microphone to promote the Day Without Injuries campaign, which was started last year with the aim of awakening Yukoners to the importance of workplace safety.

"The biggest threat to Yukoners' well-being is not H1N1," Hanley said, referring to the pandemic-of-the-year, commonly known as swine flu.

"It's preventable injuries. Traumatic injuries continue to kill Yukon residents at rates between two and three times the national average."

But most reporters present wanted to talk about plans to prevent the spread of the H1N1 virus now that students are heading back to school.

The preventable injuries story is, after all, an old one, but it's one that continues to to be a major concern for those intimate with the subject.

"Yukon men are three times more likely to die from a preventable injury than Canadian men as a whole," said Mark Hill, a spokesman for the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board. "For Yukon women, it's 2 1/2 times."

Fewer than a dozen Yukoners have been officially diagnosed with H1N1 since the end of April, when the virus first appeared in Canada. In contrast, 580 Yukoners have made workplace injury claims since May 1.

Hill said that while he is happy to report there have been no workplace fatalities in the Yukon this year, Statistics Canada reports an average of 800 workplace deaths in Canada annually; that number dwarfs the 72 deaths attributed to swine flu in Canada this year.

"Yukon - I'm sorry to say - is one of the (Canadian) leaders in workplace injuries along with the other territories," Hanley said.

"In 95 per cent of injuries, there is something, or a combination of things, that could have been done differently to prevent that injury," Hanley stressed, "that's why this year I am focusing on individual actions, reminding people to think about what they can do to make their work environment safer."

One of the greatest contributors to workplace injuries is attitude, Hanley said.

"I've heard stories from the workplace where people say using safety equipment is scoffed at."

Hill echoed that sentiment.

"There seems to be this feeling that people who work safe are wusses," he said. "But thankfully, I think that is really changing. People no longer think of getting hurt on the job as part of the job. They are concerned about their health, their ability to work and their families' security."

Asked why people seem more interested in preventing a relatively uncommon thing like the swine flu than in taking care of themselves and others at work, Hill speculated it is probably a psychological coping mechanism.

"My suggestion is that we are very afraid of the unknown while we deny the very real danger of everyday things .... If we weren't good at denial, we'd all be agoraphobic by the time we were adults. I mean, 800 deaths a year, that is scary, but sometimes people would rather think about a virus that can be treated with a shot."

Both Hanley and Hill pointed out the keys to workplace safety are paying attention, not working in dangerous conditions, not working when over -tired or unprepared, and using proper safety equipment.

"These are simple but important concepts," Hanley said.

As for precautions against swine flu, those come with considerably more health warnings. Heath Canada is warning Canadians not to take antivirals for treatment or prevention of H1N1 unless absolutely necessary, for fear the virus itself may become immune to the drugs.

Concerns have also been raised about the swine flu vaccination which is still undergoing clinical trials.

Health officials in Great Britain have said the trial time for the vaccination is far too short to determine the risk of long-term effects, while many natural health practitioners have raised the alarm of an increased risk of cancer in people who have been immunized. The cancer claim has not been supported by any peer-reviewed studies, however, other vaccinations have been found to increase the incidence of some types of cancer.

Canada will begin doing clinical trials on the H1N1 vaccination when it arrives in the country next month.

Yukon health officials told the Star earlier this week the vaccination would likely arrive in the territory by late November, with free public vaccination clinics to be held throughout the Yukon in the following weeks.