By The Associated Press Sam Friedman, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner AP

10:33 a.m. AKDT, September 17, 2012
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—

A report from the state Division of Health says the number of Alaska suicides is increasing but violent deaths from assaults and accidents have decreased.
   
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/O8U05F) reports the "Alaska Injury Surveillance Report" was created from data taken from 1980 to 2009.
   
It concludes annual number of violent deaths has remained at about 500 over 30 years despite the population growing from 420,000 to 710,000.
   
The report says accidental death was the third-most common cause of death for Alaskans from 2005 to 2009, behind cancers and heart diseases.
   
The report says that among the injury deaths reported in that period, 721 deaths were from suicide and 494 were from accidental poisonings, including drug overdoses. Another 444 Alaskans were killed in traffic crashes and 170 died in homicides.