Shifting the Focus of Institutional Attention

Both the absolute numbers and the rates have practical significance. The absolute numbers give measures to the industry and to siKiety in general of the burden of accidents. Experience elsewhere has shown that serious injuries and fatalities are associated with ever increasing costs. Thus, as the cost of medical treatment, compensation, internip-tion of production, payment of fines, etc. will increase in South Africa, the motivation to keep the absolute numbers of accidents as low as possible will increase, (pp. 55-56) 

It is now a matter for concern that there is undue reliance on data which is now nearly 40 years old, and that the results of the many thousands of dust measurements which have been made in recent yeais have not been analyzed and published in a form which makes it possible for experts in the field to describe the trends accurately, nor is it possible without access to the raw data to determine whether current sampling strategies and methods used to measure dust levels succeed in identifying the highest exposures accurately. (p. 55) 

Fac tfW.s Per Number of Individuals in the Workforce Per Number of Working Faces Per Total Amount of Production Per Unit of Time Per Worksite 

Number of Deaths/ Deaths/No. Deaths/ton Deaths/ Deaths/ 

Categorie,s oi Accidents/ Accidents/ Accidents/ Accidents/ Accidents/ 

---