Acute trauma at work remains a leading cause of death and disability
among U.S. workers. Trauma is defined as "an injury or wound to a
living body caused by the application of external force or violence."
Acute trauma can occur with the sudden, one-time application of force
or violence that causes immediate damage to a living body.
During the period from 1980 through 1995, at least 93,338 workers in
the U.S. died as a result of trauma suffered on the job, for an average
of about 16 deaths per day (NIOSH).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (Department of Labor) Census
of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)* has
identified 5,915 workplace deaths from acute traumatic injury in 2000.
BLS also estimates that 5.7 million injuries to workers occurred in 1997
alone; while NIOSH estimates that about 3.6 million occupational injuries
were serious enough to be treated in hospital emergency rooms in 1998.
In 1996, NIOSH and many of its partners in other government agencies,
in business and industry, in labor, in academia, in professional societies,
and in safety and health research and advocacy groups, developed the National
Occupational Research Agenda (NORA). Traumatic occupational injuries is
one of 21 priority areas identified under NORA.
* External Link: http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm
Traumatic Occupational Injury Topics
Agricultural Safety
Child Agricultural
Injury Prevention Initiative
Commercial Aviation
Commercial Fishing
Confined Spaces
Construction Safety
Electrical Safety
Fatality
Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program
Falls
Fire Fighter Fatality
Investigation and Prevention Program
Highway Work Zones
Logging Safety
Machine Safety
Motor Vehicle
Occupational Violence
Publications
NIOSH Traumatic Injury Publications by Year:
NIOSH has produced numerous official numbered publications on traumatic
injury topics, as well as publications that are more general but include
information on injury. You may select from the links below to view lists
of official NIOSH publications, many of which are linked to on-line versions.
NIOSH Journal Articles and Reports:
NIOSH researchers have written numerous journal articles and reports
on traumatic injury topics. Additionally, NIOSH, through extramural funding
mechanisms, has sponsored traumatic injury research that has been reported
in the literature. All NIOSH authored or funded research articles and
reports are collected in a bibliographic data system known as NIOSHTIC-2.
The
will enable you to search this database for specific journal articles
and reports.
Data
Identifying problems in traumatic injury research, as in much of public
health, is driven by surveillance. Surveillance is "the ongoing collection,
analysis and interpretation of health data in the process of describing
and monitoring a health [injury] event."* For
occupational safety research, this refers to the collection, analysis,
and interpretation of data on injuries, hazards, and exposures for identifying
potential risk factors for further research, and for prevention planning
and intervention evaluation.(from Traumatic Occupational Injury
Research Needs and Priorities: A Report by the NORA Traumatic Injury
Team, DHHS (NIOSH) PUBLICATION No. 98-134.)
* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
[1988] Guidelines
for Evaluating Surveillance Systems. MMWR 37 (S-5):1-18. May 6, 1988.
Fatal Injury Data
Data Snapshots (NTOF)
- Fatality Trends
- Age and Gender
- Rates by State
- Leading Causes
The NIOSH
Worker Health Chartbook, 2004 —
Fatal Injury Charts
NIOSH National Traumatic Occupational Fatality (NTOF) Surveillance
System
NTOF provides a nationwide surveillance system for occupational injury
deaths. NTOF is based on death certificates as a sole source of case identification
and has been estimated to include an average of 81 percent of all occupational
injury deaths nationwide. NTOF data are currently available for the years
1980 through 1995. NTOF is the most comprehensive source of data on occupational
injury fatalities prior to 1992.
Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS)
Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities Website
External Link: http://www.bls.gov/iif/
BLS Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
(External Link: http://stats.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm)
--a national census of occupational injury fatalities, including self-employed
workers, agricultural workers, and government employees. CFOI, developed
and maintained by BLS, uses multiple sources of information, e.g. death
certificates, OSHA reports, workers' compensation data, police reports,
and newspaper clippings. CFOI is a Federal/State cooperative program in
which costs are shared. States provide data to BLS for inclusion in a
national database and maintain their own State databases. Data are currently
available for the years 1992-1998.
Nonfatal Injury Data
Data Snapshots (Work-RISQS)
- Rate by Age/Sex
- Nature of Injury
- Nature by Age
- by Injury Event
Work-RISQS: Work-Related
Injury Statistics Query System
Work-RISQS is an interactive system for obtaining national estimates (number
of cases) and rates (number of cases per hours worked) for nonfatal occupational
injuries and illnesses treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments.
NIOSH collaborates with the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission (External Link: http://www.cpsc.gov)
to capture nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses treated in U.S.
hospital emergency departments by using the National Electronic Injury
Surveillance System (NEISS). NEISS data are the basis of the Work-RISQS
results.
The NIOSH Worker
Health Chartbook, 2004 — Nonfatal
Injury Charts
BLS Annual Survey Data
External Link: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshsum.htm
Other Links:
Tracking Occupational Injuries, Illnesses,
and Hazards: The NIOSH Surveillance Strategic Plan
Research
The Public Health Approach to traumatic occupational injury research
Traumatic occupational injury research at NIOSH is conducted within a
public health framework. In the injury research strategy developed by
the interdisciplinary NORA Traumatic Injury Team, the authors write:
Toward the goal of setting priorities, developing collaborative efforts,
and developing new research methodologies, the many scientific disciplines
will apply different models to occupational injury research (e.g., the
public health model, the risk management model, the safety sciences model).
All of these are variations of the scientific modelan objective,
problem-solving process. For this paper, the public health model is used
as a framework to discuss occupational injury research and prevention.
The elements of this model include:
- Identify and prioritize problems (Injury Surveillance);
- Quantify and prioritize risk factors (Analytic Injury Research);
- Identify existing or develop new strategies to prevent occupational
injuries (Prevention and Control);
- Implement the most effective injury control measures (Communication/Dissemination/
Technology Transfer); and
- Monitor the results of intervention efforts (Evaluation).
The process is an iterative one requiring continuous monitoring to ensure
that strategies implemented actually reduce or eliminate the exposure
or outcome as the intervention progresses and do not create unacceptable
new risks. There are specific traumatic occupational injury research needs
within each of these phases of the public health model.
(From the NORA strategy document Traumatic Occupational Injuries:
Research Needs and Priorities--NIOSH Pub. No. 98-134)
Links:
Prevention
NIOSH prevention information is most readily found in publications such
as NIOSH Alerts, Current
Intelligence Bulletins, Hazard Controls
and Hazard IDs, Fact Sheets, Criteria
Documents, and other publications.
If you are looking for prevention information for a particular problem
area, you may find the appropriate publications listed on NIOSH Traumatic
Occupational Injury Topics. If a topic page on the problem area does
not exist, another way to search for appropriate information is to scan
the list of publications that address traumatic
occupational injuries. Finally, the investigative reports conducted as
part of the Fatality Assessment and Control
Evaluation (FACE) program each have preventive recommendations based
on the investigation of specific fatal incidents.
National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA-TI)
In the mid 1990s, NIOSH and its partners in the public and private sectors
developed NORA
to provide a framework to guide occupational safety and health research
in the U.S. in the next decade. Approximately 500 organizations and individuals
outside NIOSH provided input into the development of the Agenda.
The Agenda identifies 21
priority research areas in three categories: Disease and Injury, Work
Environment and Workforce, and Research Tools and Approaches. Traumatic
Occupational Injury is one of the 21 NORA priority areas.
The
NORA Traumatic Injury (NORA-TI) Website
NORA Traumatic Injury Team Report:
Traumatic Occupational
Injury Research Needs and Priorities
DHHS (NIOSH) Pub. No. 98-134 (June 1998)
Other NORA Links:
National Occupational Injury Research Symposium
(NOIRS)
The National Occupational Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS), which brings
together occupational injury researchers and practitioners to present
and discuss their findings, methods, and practices, is the only meeting
of its kind conducted in the United States.
The first NOIRS was held in October 1997 in Morgantown, West Virginia.
NOIRS 2000 convened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in October 2000. The third
symposium (NOIRS 2003) was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on October
28-30, 2003. For information on the upcoming 2005 conference, please visit
the National Occupational
Injury Research Symposium (NOIRS) Homepage .
Related Links
American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE)
External Link: http://www.asse.org/
Center to Protect Workers' Rights (CPWR)
External Link: http://www.cpwr.com/
Centers for Disease Control SafeUSA
External Link: http://www.safeusa.org/
Safe at Work
External Link: http://www.safeusa.org/work/safework.htm
International Association of Fire Fighters
(IAFF)
External Link: http://www.iaff.org/
Liberty Mutual Research
Center
External Link: http://www.libertymutual.com/research/
National Safety Council
External Link: http://www.nsc.org
U.S. Department of Labor
External Link: http://www.dol.gov/
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
External Link: http://www.osha.gov/
Bureau of Labor Statistics
External Link: http://www.bls.gov/
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