The 17 jobs that are least damaging to your health

Jon Hurd/flickr

No job is completely safe or healthy. Even seemingly harmless desk jobs are killing us, thanks to the stressful environment and sedentary nature of many modern-day office gigs.

But some jobs intrinsically pose much greater health risks than others.

Working as a chemical plant operator or nurse, for instance, is far more dangerous and less healthy than working as a college professor or music director.

To rank the least unhealthy jobs in America, we used data from the Occupational Information Network, a US Department of Labor database full of detailed information on occupations.

In order to analyze jobs by their impact on workers' health, we took O*NET measures of six health risks in each of the 974 occupations in its database: exposure to contaminants; exposure to disease and infection; exposure to hazardous conditions; exposure to radiation; risk of minor burns, cuts, bites, and stings; and time spent sitting, since studies show that frequent inactivity shortens your lifespan. O*NET scores these factors on a scale from 0 to 100, with a lower score indicating a smaller health risk.

Read on to find out which jobs have very little potential to damage your health:

17. Securities and commodities sales agents

Thomson Reuters

Overall unhealthiness score: 13.3

What they do: Buy and sell securities in investment and trading firms.

Health risks:

Spend time sitting: 80
Exposure to radiation: 0
Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 0
Exposure to hazardous conditions: 0
Exposure to disease and infections: 0
Exposure to contaminants: 0

16. Postsecondary history teachers

Joby Elliott/flickr

Overall unhealthiness score: 13.2

What they do: Teach college history courses

Health risks:

Spend time sitting: 57
Exposure to radiation: 0
Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 1
Exposure to hazardous conditions: 0
Exposure to disease and infections: 15
Exposure to contaminants: 6

14 (tie). Training and development specialists

wocintech chat/flickr

Overall unhealthiness score: 13.0

What they do: Design and conduct training and development programs to improve performance.

Health risks:

Spend time sitting: 63
Exposure to radiation: 2
Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 3
Exposure to hazardous conditions: 2
Exposure to disease and infections: 2
Exposure to contaminants: 6

See the rest of the story at Business Insider