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Injury
exacts a huge toll in U.S. workplaces--on an average day, 16 workers
are killed and over 17,000 workers are injured. The associated economic
costs are high--about $121 billion per year. Research should focus on
leading causes and high-risk groups. Priorities are deaths caused by
motor vehicles, machines, violence, and falls, as well as traumatic
injuries caused by falls and contact with machines, materials, equipment,
and tools. High-risk groups include construction workers, loggers, miners,
farmers, farm workers, adolescents, and older workers. Multiple factors
and risks contribute to traumatic injuries, including the characteristics
of workers, workplace/process design, work organization, economics and
other social factors. Research needs are thus broad, and the development
of interventions involve many disciplines and organizations.
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Importance |
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Fatal Occupational Injuries During the period 1980 through 1992, more than 77,000 workers died as a result of work-related injuries. This means that an average of 16 workers die every day from injuries suffered at work. The leading causes of occupational injury fatalities over this 13-year period were motor vehicles, machines, homicides, falls, electrocutions, and falling objects. There were four industries--mining, construction, transportation, and agriculture--with occupational injury fatality rates that were notably and consistently higher than all other industries. Motor-vehicle-related deaths in the transportation sector, machine-related deaths in agriculture, electrocutions and fatal falls in construction, homicide in retail trade and public administration, and deaths due to falling objects in mining and logging appear to be important because of particularly high rates of death from injury. Nonfatal Occupational Injuries In 1994, 6.3 million workers suffered job-related injuries that resulted in lost work time, medical treatment other than first aid, loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, or transfer to another job. The leading causes of nonfatal occupational injuries involving time away from work in 1993 were overexertion, contact with objects or equipment, and falls to the same level. Industries experiencing the largest number of serious nonfatal injuries include eating and drinking places, hospitals, and grocery stores. Industries facing higher risks of serious nonfatal injuries are concentrated in the manufacturing sector and include workers in shipbuilding, wooden building and mobile home manufacture, foundries, special products sawmills, and meat packing plants. Clearly, work-related injuries and fatalities result from multiple causes, affect different segments of the working population, and occur in a myriad of occupational and industrial settings. The total cost of work-related injuries and fatalities to industry and to society at large has not been fully recognized, but is estimated to be greater than $121 billion annually. Efforts to set research and prevention priorities in traumatic injury must be driven by data that illuminate the nature and magnitude of these injuries. For information on |
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Research Opportunities |
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Relatively good
general information is available on the overall burden of work injuries
in the United States. There are expanding sources of information to
identify the industries and occupations where they occur most frequently
and with greatest severity. The challenge is to move beyond this broad
understanding to specific strategies that actually prevent another warehouse
employee from being crushed by an overturned forklift, prevent scaffolding
from collapsing from under a mason, and keep convenience store clerks
and taxi drivers from being shot or stabbed. At many worksites, such
injuries are already largely prevented. The challenge is to develop
information systems that allow new preventive efforts to target high-risk
worksites and to develop solutions that fit highly specific hazardous
circumstances. Specific strategies are needed within work sectors (e.g.,
agriculture and construction) that address the complex interplay between
machines, tools, and behavioral and environmental factors causing injuries
at a worksite. In many cases, understanding these factors will lead
researchers to re-engineer work practices, equipment, and tools to eliminate
hazards. For hazards that cannot be eliminated (such as exposure of
fire fighters to fires, explosions, and toxic emissions), research will
improve safety practices and the protective equipment and clothing worn
by the worker. |
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Current Activities |
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The initial activity
of the Traumatic Occupational Injury Research Team was assisting with
the sponsorship of the first National Occupational Injury Research Symposium
(NOIRS) in October 1997. This was the first ever national conference
on occupational injury research and was attended by over 300 occupational
safety professionals from a wide variety of disciplines and organizations.
The team is currently involved in the planning of the second Symposium,
scheduled for October 2000. |
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