Warehouse safety study

A comprehensive study was conducted by OSHA in the early 1980s to determine the injury rates, causes of injuries, scope of existing safety programs, and other factors involving injuries in warehouse operations. The study identified 2,700 warehouse workers who were injured in September 1984. Twenty-six states participated in this one-month study program. Some of the key details summarized in the study were  

Although this study was published in 1984, the data can be just as useful in evaluating today s workplace. It appears that employee training was lacking, as well as management involvement and corrective actions 

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Use an organizationwide data warehouse to study the epidemiology of patients at risk for accidents. The Children s system has plans to analyze patient safety reports for the information they can offer about how characteristics specific to a patient can increase the likelihood of risk-prone conditions in the environment. For example, the data warehouse can track patients ages, diagnoses, and admission times. Thus, if the data show that staff members report more concerns when patients who have complex, multiple diagnoses are admitted on weekends, then protocols and procedures for those patients can be modified to prevent harm. 

The book is an amplified version of papers presented at the 1982 ACS CHAS Div. Symposium on safe storage of laboratory chemicals. Chap. 2 deals with the segregation of incompatible reactive chemicals on a logical basis [1], Two accounts of chemical warehouse fires emphasise the severe problems which arise from lack of proper segregation in storage of chemicals [2,3]. Academic study has reduced the problems of storage, both environmental and safety, to a system with an hundred subclassification groups. This solution seems likely to remain academic [4],... 

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. 

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