Occupational injury statistical information

You might be surprised who has the most dangerous jobs. They are not the employees you first think about. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides an interesting insight to the safety of workers. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries administered by the BLS, in conjunction with participating state agencies, compiles comprehensive and timely information on fatal work injuries occurring in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 

Data on fatal work injuries are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), 1995. This program, which has collected occupational fatality data nationwide since 1992, uses diverse data sources to identify, verify, and profile fatal work injuries. Information about each workplace fatality (occupation and other worker characteristics, equipment being used, and circumstances of the event) is obtained by cross-referencing source documents, such as death certificates, workers compensation records, and reports to Federal and State agencies. This method assures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. 

There are four main uses of injury statistics (1) to identify high-risk jobs or work areas, (2) to evaluate company health and safety performance, (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of hazard-abatement approaches, and (4) to identify factors related to illness and injiuy causation. An illness and injuryreporting and analysis system requires that detailed information must be collected about the characteristics of illness and injuries and their frequency and severity. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (1970) established iUness and injury reporting and recording requirements that are mandatory for aU employers, with certain exclusions such as small establishments and government agencies. Regulations have been developed to define how employers are to adhere to these requirements (BLS 1978). 

The OSHA Act injury and illness system specifies a procedure for calculating the frequency of occurrence of occupational injuries and illnesses and an index of their severity. These can be used by companies to monitor their health and safety performance. National data by major industrial categories are compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics annually and can serve as a basis of comparison of individual company performance within an industry. Thus, a company can determine whether its injury rate is better or worse than that of other companies in its industry. This industrywide injury information is available on the OSHA website (http //www.osha.gov). 

Because of the estimating procedure the National Safety Council statistics may undercount U.S. workplace fatalities. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has also calculated worlq>lace fatality rates since the late 1930s but the scope of their survey has changed so dramatically that one cannot use the BLS data to identify a time trend. Nevertheless, the BLS s most recent data collection effort creates the most reliable source of information on fatal workplace accidents in the United States. 1 The BLS conducted a census of fatal occupational injuries for 1992 using data from death certificates, workers compensation claims, medical examiners records, autopsy reports, motor vehicle accident records, and OSH A and Mine Safety and Health Administration fatal injury reports. The BLS estimated Ae average worker in the United... 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) BLS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor, compiles work-related injury, illness and death statistics for workers in the United States. BLS refers to this activity as the Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities (IIF) program. While the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) sets rules for work-related injury and illness recordkeeping, BLS compiles information from data submitted by employers. Refer to BLS annual and other reports for detailed statistics on injuries, illnesses, and deaths broken down by age, industry, occupation, injury type, and other factors. 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Handbook of Methods provides detailed information on the various statistical and sampling procedures the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to summarize the incidence of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the United States. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been collecting this type of data since the 1940s. However, it wasn t until the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 when the Bureau of Labor Statistics was given the responsibility of developing a formal data collection and analysis system (Bureau of Labor Statistics 1997,71). 

The BLS administers an annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. The survey is an indication as to the levels of occupational injuries and illnesses occurring in the United States. Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, most private employers are now required to record related injuries and illnesses as part of the recordkeeping standards. If selected through the random selection process, employers are required to submit their occupational injury and illness information to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the purpose of compiling national estimates on the extent of injuries and illnesses in the workplace. 

Employers with 11 or more employees are subject to OSHA recordkeeping requirements as stated by 29 CFR 1904. They must maintain a record of occupational injuries and illnesses as they occur. Employers with ten or fewer employees are exempt from keeping such records unless selected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to participate in the Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Certain low-hazard industries are also exempt. They are, however, subject to the rest of the OSHA regulations applicable to their industry and jobs, and must post the OSHA poster. The purpose of keeping records is to permit the BLS survey material to be compiled, to help define high-hazard industries, and to inform employees of the status of their employer s record (www.OSHA.gov). 

Maity individuals who depend on television and radio for information probably believe that working in a chemical plant is a very hazardous occupation and suffers a number of fatahties. This myth is erqrosed by facts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) chemical plant employees enjoy one of the safer occupations. Yes, according to US BLS for a number of years including 2008 and 2012, it is significantly safer to work within a chemical plant than in a grocery store. See the US Fatal Occupational Injury Rates for 2008 and 2012. (The latest published data was the 2012 data as this chapter was being developed.)... 

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupation Injury and Illness Classification Manual provides a much more detailed breakout of the type data that is most useful in analysis of occupational incidents. The four major areas of data that the BLS believes are important to collect during review or investigation of occupational safety and health incidents are Nature, Part of Body Affected, Source, and Event or Exposure. The following provide more detailed information with regard to the content of these data sources ... 

Companies and federal officials frequently utilize the following statistical pieces of information designed to allow the company to compare its safety and health performance with others the incident rate, illness rate, lost workday cases rate or severity rate, and restricted workday case rate. These rates, respectively, answer the questions of How often or frequently are accidents occurring and How bad are the injuries/illnesses that are occurring The number of times that occupational injuries/illnesses happen is the determinant for the incident rate, while the number of days away from work (lost-time workdays) or restricted workdays are the prime indicator of the severity rate. Both of these rates provide unique information regarding your safety and health effort. 

I (b) Implementation. (1) Does every employer have to send data to the BLS No, each year, the BLS sends injury and illness survey forms to randomly selected employers and uses the information to create the Nation s occupational injury and illness statistics. In any year, some employers will receive a BLS survey form and others will not. You do not have to send injury and illness data to the BLS unless you receive a survey form. 

If your company had 10 or fewer employees at all times during the last calendar year, you do not need to keep OSHA s occupational injury and iUness records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) informs you in writing that you must keep the records for the upcoming year. This partial exemption for size is based on the number of employees in yoiu entire company, not just at a single location. 

Additional data that can be included in the report are the name of the injured employee, medical costs, type of injury, and the name of the supervisor. Quarterly reports on vehicle accidents should include a comparison between the current and the previous year. The statistics should include the number of preventable, non-preventable, and total accidents by department. Reports should be circulated to management and the entire supervisory force. In addition, the reports can be used at monthly safety meetings. Smaller utilities may not have sufficient data to publish reports as frequently as every three months other techniques can be used to bring the information to the attention of the employee group. Specific records and reports include employee accident records, occupational injury reports, vehicle accident reports, and public injury reports. 

The act requires the secretary to develop and maintain an effective program of collection, compilation, and analysis of occupational safety and health statistics. 29 CFR 1904, Recording and Reporting Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, requires employers to record information on the occurrence of injuries and illnesses in their workplaces. The employer must record work-related injuries and illnesses that meet one or more of certain recording criteria. OSHA rules found in 29 CFR part 1904 require all employers with 11 or more employees to keep OSHA injury and illness records, unless classified in a specific low-hazard industry. Employers with 10 or fewer employees must keep OSHA records, if OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics informs them in writing that they must keep records. Employers may use the OSHA 301 or an equivalent form that documents the same information. Some state workers compensation, insurance, or other reports may be acceptable substitutes, as long as they provide the same information as the OSHA 301. The OSHA Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (Form 300) serves as a means to document and classify work-related injuries and illnesses. The log also documents the extent and severity of each case. 

OSHA is proposing changes to its reporting system for occupational injuries and illnesses. An updated and modernized reporting system would enable a more efficient and timely collection of data and would improve the accuracy and avadabihty of the relevant records and statistics. This proposal involves modification to 29 CFR part 1904.41 to expand OSHA s legal authority to collect and make available injury and illness information required under part 1904. 

Mr. Toscano provides some 1995 relative risk fatality statistics which compare several industries relative risk with the occupations described above in his Dangerous Jobs article. These numbers are specific to 1995 and involve fatalities, not major injuries. On a typical day about 17 workers in the United States are killed on the job. Thank goodness that job-related fatalities are relatively infrequent for specific standard industry classifications (SIC code), but a large incident in any industry may skew the information from year to year. 

Decision-makers have sometimes found presentations of comparative risk information a useful aid to the public discourse on risk acceptance. We referred in the last section, for example, to OSHA s use of statistics on the risks of job-related accidents to support decisions on risk reduction goals for workplace carcinogens. The agency noted that lifetime risks of death from injuries suffered in what most people perceive to be safe occupations do not go below about 1 per 1000. Data of these types were helpful in explaining why the agency settled on carcinogen risk levels in this range as sufficiently low to provide a safe work environment. 

The purpose of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. The CDC provides limited information on occupational safety and health. For example, their web page has information about accident causes and prevention, back belts, cancer—occupational exposure, effects of workplace hazards on male reproductive health, latex allergies, needle stick, occupational injiuies, teen workers, and violence in the workplace (see website http //www.cdc.gov). The Center for Health Statistics is located within CDC and provides basic health statistics on the U.S. population. This information is used to identify potential occupational health risks by occupational health researchers (see website http / / WWW.cdc.gov/nchs). 

In Estonia, the official statistics on occupational accidents are based on the information received in the Work Accidents Reports which are obliged to send to Sub-Bureaus of NLI by employers. The doctor is also obligated to notify NLI about the employee s severe injury or dangerous health condition as a result of the... 

An agency of the federal government that collects information on labor economics and statistics. It is considered the preeminent source of injury and illness-related statistics in the United States. It publishes an annual report of workplace injuries and illnesses taken from employer reporting records. The report includes the rate and number of work-related injuries, illnesses, and fatal injuries, and how these statistics vary by incident, industry, geography, occupation, and other characteristics. 

At the national level it might be useful to utilise EuroSafe much more in the future, which also records information about accidents in private life (EuroSafe 2006). EuroSafe, the European Association for Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion, is a network of injury prevention champions dedicated to making Europe a safer place. Occupational health care systems in workplaces could have the proper expertise to utilise the systems provided by EuroSafe. Though there currently exists a national web portal of HLA in Finland (TapaturmaportaaU 2008), the significance of HLA, especially at work places, needs a new type of statistics and effective media to communicate the real, total accident figures. This would support holistic and consistent safety culture. 

The U.S. Department of Labor collects and publishes annual information on the number of work-related illnesses, injuries, and fatalities. The Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program provides statistics by various industries, occupations, geographical locations, and other diverse parameters. 

Note to Subpart B All employers covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) are covered by these Part 1904 regulations. However, most employers do not have to keep OSHA injury and illness records unless OSHA or the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) informs them in writing that they must keep records. For example, employers with 10 or fewer employees and business establishments in certain industry classifications are partially exempt from keeping OSHA injury and illness records. 

Lead s record as an injurious, even lethal fetal toxicant in humans dates in modem times to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the associated statistics are presented in Table 14.1. Virtually all of this documented toxicological record for toxic exposures of pregnant women in the workplace is found in European records since more detailed registry information existed at those times in Europe than in the United States. The U.S. interest at the time was directed more to men working in the various lead industries, based on the widely disseminated research and writings of occupational physician Alice Hamilton (1914a,b, 1919, 1924, 1925). 

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