A National Concern for Safety in the Workplace

The warehousing sector as a whole has not placed enough focus on safety performance. Statistically, public warehousing s rate of injuries per 100 workers is 6.51, while on a national basis, the average for all 

How dangerous are warehouses Note the numbers in Table 1-1. The data identifies the five main events that have caused fatalities in warehouses from 1992-1995. This report was published by the National Safety Council and provides data that should be of concern to the warehousing industry. 

In addition to the safety statistics which are generated from warehouses, a much larger problem with all workplace injuries has been recently recognized. The American Medical Association published a detailed study on workplace injuries in July 1997. The report stated that workplace injuries and illnesses cost an estimated 171 billion each year and result in approximately 6,500 workplace deaths and over 60,000 deaths from disease. 

The study reported that to our knowledge, no prior study uses national data to generate estimates of the burden and costs of occupational injuries and illnesses in the U.S. The report studied fourteen primary sources and 200 secondary sources of data, and went on to identify larger numbers than previously reported in national studies. Between 66,000 and 111,000 new cases of cancer are caused by occupational factors each year, while an estimated 36,000 to 73,000 new or recurrent cases of coronary heart disease are associated with workplace factors. 

According to this very detailed study, the figures usually sited underestimate the true burden and costs of occupational illness in the United States. The costs associated with occupational injuries and illnesses are large compared with other diseases. 

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