Work-related injuries costs

Alcohol abuse in the United States costs an estimated 170 billion each year. Close to half of this figure is due to a loss in workplace productivity resulting from illness and work-related injury. Other contributing factors are alcohol-related health care expenses costing society over 26 million and automobile accidents estimated at 15 million. Fifty percent of the adults in prison are incarcerated for crimes that are alcohol related. Alco-... 

FIGURE 2.1 What does a work-related injury or illness cost ... 

More than the economic costs of workplace accidents and diseases the human suffering of the victims and their families drives the desire to design government programs to reduce the frequency and the severity of work related injuries. Until the early part of the twentieth century an... 

Healthy People 2010 Objectives from the US. Deparunent of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has made the facts available relevant to occupational injuries and illnesses. Every five seconds a worker is injured. Every ten seconds a worker is temporarily or permanently disabled. Each day, an average of 137 persons die from work-related diseases, and an additional 17 die from workplace injuries on the job. Each year, about 70 youths under 18 years of age die from injuries at work and 70,000 require treatment in a hospital anergency room. In 1996, an estimated 11,000 workers were disabled each day due to work-related injuries. That same year, the National Safety Council estimated that on-the-job injuries cost society 121 billion, including lost wages, lost productivity, administrative expenses, health care, and other costs (National Safety Council Injury Facts, 2010). A study published in Jnly 1997 reports that the 1992 combined U.S. economic burden for occupational illnesses and injuries was an estimated 171 billion (U.S. Department of Conunerce, www.commerce.gov, 2001). 

Data from the National Safety Council (NSC) for 2008 indicates that the costs of work-related injuries and deaths were 183.0 billion. Wage and productivity loss accounted for 88.4 billion, medical cost for 38.3 billion, and employer cost equaled 12.7 billion. The average cost of a workplace death was put at 1,310,000 and a disabling injury cost at 48,000. A look at other injury costs provided by the National Safety Council indicates that a reasonable, serious, non-disabling injury would have an average cost of 22,674 (2006-2007) (NSC Injury Fact, 2010). 

One useful step in making decisions about OHS in a particular workplace is to compare the data on work-related injury and disease in that workplace with national, state, province, territory figures for occupations in that workplace and for similar types of industry. This can give an idea of the types of workers most at risk, and the types of occmrences which need to be addressed first. It allows you to benchmark yoiu workplace against other similar ones. For your particular workplace, it is possible to ask your compensation insiuer for a breakdown of injury types, injmy severity, injirry frequency rates, injury duration, and claims costs, and relate these to particular sections or parts of your workplace. 

Bird and Germain do not consider the impact of reduced commitment to work when employees operate in an environment where injuries are common. Nor do they address the costs specifically associated with illnesses that may be associated with health hazards [1]. It is OSHA s belief that the financial impact of work-related illnesses may be even greater than that of work-related injuries, because certain illnesses frequently involve longer absences. 

As future safety and health professionals, it is up to you to rethink our current systems and initiate changes that wonld be beneficial to aU. If the work-related injury or illness is prevented, there is little or no cost. Why do we spend far less on prevention than we do on workers compensation Shonld each individual state possess its own workers compensation system with varying rules, regulations, and benefits Shonld OSHA possess a different system to identify and calculate work-related injuries and illnesses And lastly, should there be a minimum level of qualification within our profession and a method through which to enforce acceptable behavior within the profession The safety and health profession has been anerging over the past decades, and it s up to you to take the safety and health profession to the next level. 

In general, safety is not something that enployers think of as a cost-saving measure. However, with the National Safety Council noting that there are 3.4 billion work-related injuries aimuaUy with 156.2 billion spent each year on work-related injuries, safety measures to avoid the cost of injuries become a viable budget consideration. Specifically to the question of hand protection, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control cite 1,080,000 hand injuries annually with visits to the emergency room. At the same time, there are 110,000 days annually away firom work due to hand and finger lacerations. 

Occupational hearing loss is the most common work-related injury in the United States. Approximately 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise levels at work and an additional 9 million exposed to ototoxic (toxic to the ear) chemicals. An estimated 242 million is spent annually on workers compensation for hearing loss disability. It s estimated that 200,000 of hearing loss costs (per individual) are due to lost work productivity over a worker s lifetime. Are your workers well-protected How often should you check on this ... 

Little has been done to study the cost to employers and employees of work-related injuries and illnesses, including assaults. A few studies have shown an increase in assaults over the past two decades. In one reported situation of 121 workers sustaining 134 injuries, 43% involved lost time from work with 13% of those injured missing more than 21 days from work. In this same investigation, an estimate of the costs of assault was that the 134 injuries from patient violence cost 766,000 and resulted in 4,291 days lost and 1,445 days of restricted duty. 

Injury records should be consulted before and after an intervention process has been started in order to show the savings from fewer work-related injuries. Direct costs that should be calculated per injury include... 

Effective management of worker safety and health protection is a decisive factor in reducing the extent and severity of work-related injuries and illnesses and their related costs. In fact, an effective safety and health program forms the basis of good worker protection and can save time and money—about 4 for every dollar spent—and increase productivity. 

Accidents and work related ill-health cost the British economy between 6 billion and 12 billion per year. 30 million days are lost each year from work related injuries and ill-health. 

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