Statistics: accidents, disabling

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the injury frequency rate for all manufacturing companies rose from 11.8 in 1960 to 15.3 in 1970. The National Safety Council estimates that there are around 15,000 job-related deaths each year and another 2,300,000 workers suffer disabling injuries. The total cost associated with these accidents is nearly 9,500,000,000/yr. 14 These figures are conservative,... 

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). 

Focus on High Severity Cases Severity strategies focus on potential accidents that lead to major injuries, long-term disability, serious illnesses, death, impact many people or cause major property damage. Data from national injury statistics by industry, occupation, type of work or other factors help pinpoint risks. 

The metal processing and municipality comprise a total of aroimd 11,800 injurious accidents, and the years covered by the data were, respectively, 2001-2013 and 2003-2011 (Qvist et al. 2004 Yijama and Ollanketo 2007 Yijama and Vayrynen 2006). The variables and their classifications were typically used in the occupational accident statistics, like length of disability (Kjellen 2000 The Federation of Accident Insurance Institutions 2007 The Statistics Finland 2007). 

The length of disability, days of absence from work, describes the seriousness of the accident. A lost-time injury (LTl) was defined as an injury that causes at least one entire day to be lost from work. Some results also were analysed by using the LTl rate and Chi-square statistic. 

Because injuries received from falls in the workplace are such a common occurrence— in a typical year more than 10,000 workers will lose their lives in falls—safety officials need to be aware of not only fall hazards but also the need to institute a fall protection safety program (Kohr, 1989). Just how frequent and serious are accidents related to falls Let s look at a few telling facts about falls in the workplace. The National Safety Council s annual report typically predicts 1400 or more deaths and more than 400,000 disabling injuries to occur each year due to falls. Falls are the leading cause of disabling injuries in the United States, accounting for close to 18% of all workers compensation claims. A Bureau of Labor Statistics 24-state survey reported that 60% of elevated falls were under 10 feet, and 50% of those were under 5 feet (Pater, 1985). The primary causes of falls have been identified as the following (Kohr, 1989) ... 

For years, safety workers have been targeting frequency in the belief that severity would be reduced as a by-product. As a result, in Australia for example, Freqrrency Rates nationwide have been reduced much more than have Severity Rates. One Australian state reported a 33% reduction in all accidents over a period of 10 years while, dttring the same period, the number of permanent partial disability injrrries actualfy increased. (This cotdd have resulted from a statistical recording change rather than arty real improvemerrt in accident rates.)... 

---