Injury workplace

Macdonald, Scott. The Role of Drugs in Workplace Injuries is Drug Testing Appropriate . Journal of Drug Issues. Fall 1995 v25 n4 p703(20)... 

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics collects data annually regarding workplace injuries. The latest data at the time of this writing are from 2006. While these data are quite nonspecific and difficult to relate directly to the epidemiology of ocular chemical injuries, they do provide some insight into the scope of the problem. All of the following data refer to private industry and cases ofnonfatal injuries or illnesses resulting in lost work days. 

If one conducts a literature search on the term risk assessment, a lengthy list of publications on a range of topics will be produced (NAS/NRC, 1983 1994 Paustenbach, 1995), because this term has been used to describe estimates of the likelihood of a number of unwanted events. These include, for example, industrial explosions, workplace injuries, failures of machine parts, natural catastrophes, injury or death as a result of voluntary activities or lifestyle, diseases, and death from natural causes. 

Toscano, Guy A. Dangerous Jobs in Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1995 A Collection of Data and Analysis, Report 913, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics April 1997, Washington, D.C., pp. 38—4I. This excerpt appeared in Compensation and Working Conditions, Summer 1997. ... 

The Institute of Medicine reported in January 2000 that between 44 000 and 98 000 deaths occur annually from medical errors and that an estimated 7000 deaths occur due to adverse drug reactions, which was in excess of the 6000 deaths that occurred annually from workplace injuries.3... 

In the 1980s, Responsible Care s six Codes of Management Practices served as a framework for the chemical companies to use internal processes to improve performance. Overall, environmental performance did improve because of a commitment to the codes and expanding regulatory requirements (Yosie, 2003). Members of the CCPA steadily improved their environmental and workplace health and safety records throughout the 1990s. Their records indicate a steady decline in workplace injuries and a marked reduction in the frequency and severity of transportation incidents (CCPA, 1999). 

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (1999), Fatal Workplace Injuries in 1997, U.S. Depeutment of Labor, Washington DC. 

Ansberry, Clare. 1989. Risky Business Workplace Injuries Proliferate as Concerns Push People to Produce. The Wall Street Journal. June 16 Al, A8. 

The Health and Safety Executive (2014) report that the UK construction industry only employs approximately 5% of the UK workforce, but disproportionately accounts for 31% of fatal injuries, 10% of reported major/specified injuries and 6% of over-7-day injuries to employees. In the period 2013/14 there were 42 fatal injuries to workers in the construction industry and 592 000 working days were lost due to workplace injury, a total of 1.1 days lost per worker. All these statistics make for unpleasant reading, and also make construction one of the most dangerous industries to work in within the UK. 

An injury and illness prevention program is a proactive process to help employers find and fix workplace hazards before workers are hurt. We know these programs can be effective at reducing injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. Many workplaces have already adopted such approaches, for example as part of OSHA s cooperative programs. Not only do these employers experience dramatic decreases in workplace injuries, but they often report a transformed workplace culture that can lead to higher productivity and quality, reduced turnover, reduced costs, and greater employee satisfaction. 

An enhanced focus on prevention is needed to bring these numbers down. To accomplish this, an effective, flexible, commonsense tool is available that can dramatically reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries and illnesses the injury and illness prevention program. This tool helps employers find hazards and fix them before injuries, illnesses or deaths occur. It helps employers meet their obligation under the OSH Act to furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees. It also helps employers avoid the significant costs associated with injuries and illnesses in the workplace. 

WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF WORKPLACE INJURIES, ILLNESSES AND DEATHS TO EMPLOYERS, WORKERS AND THE NATION ... 

The main goal of injury and illness prevention programs is to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses and deaths, the suffering these events cause workers, and the financial hardship they cause both workers and employers. 

At the same time, these programs will help employers avoid the substantial cost impacts and business disruptions that accompany occupational injuries, illnesses and deaths. One widely-cited source regarding estimates of the magnitude of these costs is the Liberty Mutual Research Institute, which reports the direct cost of the most disabling workplace injuries in 2008 to be 53 billion (Liberty Mutual Research Institute 2010). Another source, the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), estimates the annual workers compensation benefits paid for all compensable injuries and illnesses in 2009 at 58 billion (National Academy of Social Insurance 2011). NASI further reports the total costs paid by employers for workers compensation increased from 60 billion in 2000 to 74 billion in 2009. 

In summary, the number and costs of workplace injuries, illnesses and fatalities are unacceptably high. Injury and illness prevention programs have been proven to help employers and society reduce the personal, financial and societal costs that injuries, illnesses and fatalities impose. As described below, the thousands of workplaces that have implemented these programs in some form have already witnessed the resulting benefits, in the form of higher efficiency, greater worker productivity and lower costs. 

This body of research, combined with studies of individual companies (see boxes, below, with Case Studies of Programs Implemented under OSHA s Voluntary Protection Program (VPP) and Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP)) danonstrate clearly that injury and illness prevention programs are effective at the establishment level in dramatically reducing risk of workplace injury. This effect has also been detected in state-wide comparisons. 

OSHA believes that adoption of injury and illness prevention programs based on simple, sound, proven principles will help millions of U.S. businesses improve their compliance with existing laws and regulations, decrease the incidence of workplace injuries and illnesses, reduce costs (including significant reductions in workers compensation premiums) and enhance their overall business operations. 

The earliest formal accident models came from industrial safety (sometimes called occupational safety) and reflect the factors inherent in protecting workers from injury or illness. Later, these same models or variants of them were applied to the engineering and operation of complex technical and social systems. At the beginning, the focus in industrial accident prevention was on unsafe conditions, such as open blades and unprotected belts. While this emphasis on preventing unsafe conditions was very successful in reducing workplace injuries, the decrease naturally started to slow down as the most obvious hazards were eliminated. The emphasis... 

Since output is fixed, the firm s economic problem is to minimize the sum of labor costs and safety costs. In this example, each foreman is paid 100,000 and each construction laborer is paid 40,000. Each accident costs 30,000 in terms of replacement labor and capital costs. These are the only costs associated with on-the-job accidents. Initially, suppose a workers compensation system is in place that only pays some of the lost wages after the waiting period, though the firm s HRM practices allow workers to use their sick-day benefits to replace their lost wages for the first three days following an injury. Hence, injured workers bear some costs of workplace injuries, though not any costs associated with the waiting period. 

Table 3.2 The Effeets of Human Resource Management Policies on Workplace Injuries (Firm-Level Analysis Full Model Adjusted for Asymptotic Covariances)... 

Safety Practices, Firm Culture, and Workplace Injuries... 

The fellow servant rule held that employers were not liable for workplace injuries that resulted from the negligence of other employees. For example, if... 

Workplace injury, illness and fatality statistics, 2010. Accessed NEED DATE from www.osha.gov/oshstats/index. 

Affect the involvement of direct supervision in the management of workplace injury and illness cases ... 

What is the significance of ergonomics-related incidents within the universe of workplace injuries and illnesses A colleague in an insurance... 

Assume that on a macro and best-information-available basis, estimates previously cited are close—that is, that 50% of workplace injuries and illnesses and 60% of workers compensation costs are ergonomics-related. Then, those who have responsibilities in occupational safety and health must have broad involvement in ergonomics. 

Rather than have each location manager draft a safety program, one was provided them containing the basics with the understanding that they were to flesh it out to suit their particular operation and needs. Rather soon, facilities improved their safety program efforts to the extent that audit scores continued to climb while workplace injuries continued to decline. The higher audit scores provided a friendly competition among facilities to excel. 

Not only has the rate at which employees experienced a recordable injury decreased by l6.0% since calendar year 2003, but also the Days Away/Restricted case rate, the measure of cases in which employees were absent from work, restricted, or transferred as a result of a workplace injury or illness, has declined by 19.2% over the same period. ... 

A company s injury history, both the frequency and severity of injuries, is one of the factors determining their workers compensation insurance premiums. Having a revamped safety program will drive down injury rates and, in turn, insurance premiums. But, that is only one of the costs associated with workplace injuries. Others include medical expenses for treatment of the injured and lost productivity. Below are some rather startling findings from a PBS Frontline program based on a University of Michigan Press publication, which examined workplace injury statistics for 1992. 

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