Work-related accidents disabling

In 1988, the total cost of work-related accidents of 47.1 billion was based on 10,600 deaths and 1,800,000 disabling injuries. Included in the estimate of work-related accidents attributable to sleepiness were (a) motor-vehicle accidents due to shift work and on-the-job motor vehicle accidents (35.0% of total work-related accidents), (b) falls during work caused by sleepiness or inattention (12.6%), and (c) water and transportation accidents (4.8%). Therefore, of all work-related accidents, about 52.5% might potentially be related to sleepiness and then, accounting for 5565 fatalities and 945,000 disabling injuries, resulted in a cost of 24.7 billion. 

The cost of workplace injuries is enormous. In 1992 the U.S. economy lost 115.9 billion from work-related accidents 62.5 billion from wage and productivity losses, 22.0 billion from medical costs, 14.5 billion from administration expenses, 3.4 billion from motor vehicle damages, 10.2 billion from indirect employer costs, and 3.3 billion from fire losses (National Safety Council 1993). In addition to monetary losses, work injuries cause pain and suffering and frequently result in permanent disabilities that impede the normal enjoyment of life. The National Safety Council (1993) estimated that for every dollar of monetary loss accidents lower the quality of life on average by two dollars. With a two-to-one quality-of-life loss ratio the total cost of workplace accidents in 1992 was 347.7 billion, about 5.8 percent of 1992 U.S. GDP. 

In the expected utility function (B3.1) P determines the loss of utility from a work-related accident or disease resulting in death or total disability, income held constant. Higher values of P imply greater ex ante utility from the provision for survivors, for example. Because the bequest motive is likely to be small we set P = 0.1 in the simulations. Workers experience a nine-tenths utility loss from an injury holding income constant. 

Workers Compensation laws ensure that employees injured or disabled on the job receive appropriate monetary benefits, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses. Some laws also protect employers and fellow workers by limiting the amount an injured employee can recover from an employer and by eliminating the liability of coworkers in most accidents. State Workers Compensation statutes establish this framework for most employment. Federal statutes are limited to federal employees or those workers employed in some significant aspect of interstate commerce. The injury or illness must have resulted from employment. 

This is actual time lost from disabling injuries. Often there is spillover from accidents that occurred in previous years that cause lost time in the current year. As an example, a worker exposed to ammonia fumes that suffered permanent damage to his lungs can recover and return to work, but in the following years he may be more susceptible to pneumonia and be unable to work due to illnesses directly related to the previous injury. 

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