Injuries and illnesses trends

Provide for investigation of accidents. Analyze injury and illness trends. 

System to analyze injury and illness trends over time through a review of injury/ illness experience hazards identified through inspections, employee reports, and accident investigations... 

All accidents and near-miss incidents should be investigated to determine causes, and means for their prevention identified. Analysis of injury and illness trends over time should be undertaken so that patterns with common causes can be identified and prevented. 

Data analysis in an effective program will analyze injury and illness records for indications of sources and locations of hazards, and jobs that experience higher numbers of injuries. By analyzing injury and illness trends over... 

Analysis, if possible, of injury and illness trends over extended periods to identify patterns and prevent problems. 

Provide for regular site safety and health inspeetions, to identify new or previously missed hazards and feilures in hazard controls. So that employee insight and experience in safety and health proteetion may be utilized and employee concerns may be addressed, provide a reliable system where employees, without fear of reprisal, may notify managemenf personnel about conditions that appear hazardous and receive timely and appropriate responses and encourage employees to use the system. Provide for investigation of accidents and near-miss incidents, to identify both their causes and means for their prevention. Analyze injury and illness trends over time, so that patterns with common causes can be identified and prevented. 

Raise employee awareness regarding safety and health issues Establish the need for additional employee training Identify injury and illness trends... 

Seabrook stated Recent injury and illness trends within companies and their global supply chains indicate that overall incident rate improvement has slowed and rates of fatal and serious injuries have remained steady for a number of years. Clearly, a different approach is required if further improvements are to be made. ... 

The place to start is with all those nmnbers. At regular intervals, analyze your injury and illness data to find trends and spot problem areas. Do most injmies take place in yom maintenance shop Are most of them caused by a few particular tasks Are office workers complaining of carpal tunnel... 

Data on nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses paint a somewhat different picture than fatal injuries. Figure 1.2 shows the trend of nonfatal workplace injuries and illness since 1973, which is the first year firms were required to report industrial accidents and diseases. Unlike death rates, injuries and illnesses do not show a marked decline over time. Since 1975 the pattern of workplace injuries follows closely... 

Does the site assess trends utilizing data from hazard reports or acci-dent/incident investigations to determine the potential for injuries and illnesses ... 

Establishing, documenting, and communicating to employees and contractors clear goals that are attainable and measurable, objectives that are relevant to workplace hazards and trends of injury and illness, and policies and procedures that indicate how to accomplish the objectives and meet the goals. 

The medical provider sends a monthly statement to the employer that summarizes all bills that have been submitted to the employees compensation insurance carrier. This summary includes both diagnostic and treatment information. The employer analyzes this information for trends in injuries and illnesses as a way of determining if employees are being exposed to identified hazards, if hazards exist that have not been identified, or if employees need more training about hazards. 

Data for 2010 from the U.S. Department of Labor s Bureau of Labor Statistics showed an upward trend in occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work. The incidence rate for health care support workers jumped by 6 percent to 283 cases per 10,000 full-time workers — almost 2 1/2 times the rate for all private and public sector workers. 

Lagging indicators are metrics used to measure past occupational safety and health performance. The results can be used to identify negative safety and health trends and identify corrective action necessary to prevent future work related injuries and illnesses. 

Review injury and illness data for incident trends. 

There are approximately 6 million workplaces in the United States and each one of than has unique sources of energy that are an integral part of the industry or the occupation in that workplace. To take a critical and nonbiased look at the injuries that you are experiencing, other pieces of information are necessary. You should gather information regarding injuries to evaluate them against national trends, industry trends, and your own prevention effort. Injuries involving lost workdays from the 1999 BLS Annual Survey of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses wiU be used as an example. 

Injury and illness analysis 5 Data trends are fully analyzed and displayed, common causes are communicated, management ensures prevention and employees are fully aware of trends, causes, and means of prevention... 

The emphasis of the explosives industry on safety in the manufacturing and handling of explosives has led to its being one of the safest industrial environments. A comparison of 1987 work injury rates for the explosives industry, for all industries, and for several selected industries is shown in Fig. 30.13. The data listed are OSHA recordable occupational injuries and illnesses per 100 employees as reported by the National Safety Council." The development of modern blasting agents and explosives, such as ANFO, slurries, and emulsions, that contain no self-explosive ingredients has further advanced safety of application, and has lowered costs and increased the options available to the consumer. The current level of R D effort is likely to continue this trend and also to lead to extension of this technology into military applications. 

Another way to identify hazards is to review documents/records in the workplace. For example, your injury and illness and workers compensation records can highlight areas where attention is needed or emerging trends are present. In addition, documents such as safety data sheets, manufacturer s operating manuals, and warning labels can help you identify hazards. 

Injury and illness records analysis Since there must be enough information for patterns to emerge, small sites may require a review of 3-5 years of records. Larger sites may find useful trends yearly, quarterly, or monthly. When analyzing injury and illness records, look for similar injuries and illnesses. These generally indicate a lack of hazard controls. Look for where the injury or illness occurred, what type of work was being done, time of day, or type of equipment. 

Then, the workers compensation cost figure to be used in this exercise is the total of claims paid in one year, regardless of when the injury or illness was reported. That figure, once established, would not change. For successive years, those figures will indicate trends, favorably or unfavorably. Allowances are necessaiy for increases in workers compensation benefits and for inflation when comparing cost data for successive years. 

The number of injuries, illnesses, or lost workdays related to a common exposure base of 100 full-time workers as used by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The common exposure base enables one to make accurate inter-industry comparisons, trend analysis over time, or comparisons among firms regardless of size. This rate is calculated as IR = (N/EH) X 200,000, where N is number of injuries and/or dlnesses or lost work days, EH is total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year, and 200,000 is the base for 100 full-time equivalent workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year). 

Have there been any injury and/or illness trends over the last three years ... 

If there have been injury and/or illness trends, what courses of action have been taken ... 

Trends in injuries/illness experienced should be identified and analyzed. Trends can indicate areas in need of attention. Examples of trends that might emerge are a type of injury, (e.g., eye injuries), or a number of injuries/illnesses in a specific department [3]. 

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