Roof inspection, which involves a person climbing up on a roof and taking notes, is a fairly dangerous job.

The claim is about degree ('fairly dangerous'). True: occupational safety data or authoritative industry sources show that climbing roofs for inspection, as insurance adjusters or inspectors do, carries a notable risk of serious injury or death from falls. Examples: BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data on roof falls, OSHA guidance, or insurance-industry safety reports describing falls and injuries among adjusters doing roof inspections as a recognised hazard above typical office or field work. Mostly true: the risk is real and recognised but moderate, e.g. well below roofers yet clearly above average. Mixed: the evidence is ambiguous on whether the risk is materially elevated. Mostly false: injuries happen but the data show risk close to ordinary occupational levels, and the claim overstates it. False: the data show roof inspection for insurance carries no meaningful elevated risk.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Roofers and painters had highest rates of nonfatal falls to a lower level in 2016 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily · 31 July 2018

   “Roofers and painters were the most at risk to suffer nonfatal falls to a lower level in 2016. The rate for roofers was 86.9 cases per 10,000 full-time workers; the rate for painters was 75.0 cases per 10,000 full-time workers. Their rates far exceeded the rate for all workers combined of 5.1 cases per 10,000 full-time workers.”

2. E2 Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers Journal of Safety Research (Elsevier, ScienceDirect) · 28 February 2013

   “Falls are the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the roofing industry, accounting for 76% of fatalities between 2003 and 2009 (BLS, 2012b).”

3. E3 Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers Journal of Safety Research (Elsevier, ScienceDirect) · 28 February 2013

   “According to the BLS (2012a), workers in the roofing industry are over three times more likely to experience fatal occupational injuries when compared to construction workers overall.”

4. E4 TABLE R98. Incidence rates for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving days away from work per 10,000 full‐time workers by occupation and selected nature of injury or illness, private industry, 2019 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 17 November 2022

   “| Roofers | 47-2181 | 360.6 | 72.8 | 46.1 | 46.6 | 22.3 | 24.3 | 14.4 | 16.6 | - | - | - | - | 5.8 | - | 5.6 | 86.9 | 70.4 |”

5. E5 Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers Journal of Safety Research (Elsevier/Pergamon); authors from CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training · 1 February 2013

   “Roofing is one of the most hazardous tasks in the construction industry”

6. E6 Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers Journal of Safety Research (Elsevier/Pergamon); authors from CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training · 1 February 2013

   “Falls are the leading cause of workplace fatalities in the roofing industry, accounting for 76% of fatalities between 2003 and 2009 (BLS, 2012b).”

7. E7 Fatal falls from roofs among U.S. construction workers Journal of Safety Research (Elsevier/Pergamon); authors from CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training · 1 February 2013

   “According to the BLS (2012a), workers in the roofing industry are over three times more likely to experience fatal occupational injuries when compared to construction workers overall.”

8. E8 1 Michigan State University Occupational & Environmental Medicine (MIFACE), summarizing a MIOSHA investigation · 15 April 2025

   “Case 329. 73-year-old insurance claim adjuster died when he fell 18 feet from a flat, dry, commercial building roof edge during a claim assessment.”

9. E9 Roofing Estimator Dies After Falling 14 Feet from the Roof of a Shopping Center Strip Mall - New Jersey: Report 93-NJ-094-01 CDC / NIOSH (FACE investigation), archived in CDC Stacks · April 1994

   “The incident occurred as the victim was inspecting the flat roof of the mall for water leaks.”

10. E10 National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2016 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · 19 December 2017

    “Fatal work injuries from falls, slips, or trips continued a general upward trend that began in 2011, increasing 6 percent to 849 in 2016 and 25 percent overall since 2011.”

11. E11 Peak v. Cohee Justia Law (summary of Supreme Court of Mississippi opinion 2019-IA-00045-SCT) · 16 April 2020

    “An insurance adjuster was injured while performing the specific task he was hired to do: identify and distinguish preexisting roof damage from storm damage.”

BLS and peer-reviewed sources show that working on roofs carries a sharply elevated fall risk: roofers had a nonfatal fall-to-lower-level rate of 86.9 per 10,000 full-time workers, against 5.1 for all workers (E1), and falls accounted for 76% of roofing-industry deaths in 2003-2009 (E2, E6). Fatality investigations and court records describe an insurance claim adjuster killed falling from a roof during a claim assessment (E8), an estimator killed while inspecting a roof (E9), and an adjuster injured during a roof damage inspection (E11), so the hazard is real and recognised for inspection work. None of the evidence gives fall rates for adjusters or inspectors specifically. That supports "fairly dangerous" without measuring how much riskier the job is.