Workplace Injuries and Deaths Continue to Decline

The rate of fatal work injuries in the US was lower in 2006 than in any year since official nationwide record keeping began in 1992, according to preliminary Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released in August 2007. Although there were more than 5,700 deaths from job-related injuries last year, the positive side of that grim total is that it translates to a rate of 3.9 deaths per 100,000 workers, down from a rate of 4.0 per 100,000 in 2005.

In general terms, the rate of serious non-fatal injuries requiring at least one day away from work is also declining slowly but steadily. Among many reasons, public health experts say, progress in reducing workplace deaths and injuries is due to three key factors: significant change in the type of work being done in the US, enhanced and expanded injury prevention efforts, and growing awareness of the health benefits of getting people "up and at it" more quickly after certain types of injuries.

Many scientific studies are underway right now to look at a wide range of occupational risks and ways to address them. NIOSH - the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health - is the government's scientific arm examining many of these issues and funding much of the research, including work in which the Medical College has been involved.

Wisconsin Deaths Drop by 25%
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides the most current statistics on workplace injuries. The numbers are broken down in great detail by type of occupation but not directly by type of facility in which the work takes place. The general trend: office workers in clerical and management jobs are far less likely to be injured or killed on the job than are workers in manufacturing, transportation, or even health care.

National private industry non-fatal injuries and illness totals for 2005 included 4,214,200 total recordable cases, 1,234,700 cases involving days away from work, 503,530 cases involving sprains, strains, tears, 270,890 cases involving injuries to the back, and 255,750 cases involving falls. (Numbers for 2006 should be available from BLS in mid-October).

The reduction in work fatalities in Wisconsin was particularly dramatic. BLS reported 121 fatal occupational fatalities in the state for 2005, while the preliminary number for 2006 is 91, a 25% reduction. Of those 91 job-related deaths, 33 were caused by transportation incidents, 24 by contact with objects and equipment, 15 by falls, 11 by assaults and violent acts, and 4 by exposure to harmful substances or environments.

Long-term illnesses that are likely job-related are not included in the BLS fatality statistics. The agency notes that it is often difficult to verify work exposure as the cause of an illness and that many diseases take years to develop and are hard to track. So, only traumatic occupational incidents are in the BLS fatality data mix. For non-fatal injury data, BLS uses a "ballpark" figure of about 6% as the percentage of incidents due to job-related illness/disease as opposed to traumatic injury.

Some Professions Have High Risk of Injury
For 2003, BLS reported that the three occupations with the greatest number of injuries and illnesses were laborers and material movers; heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers; and nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants.

Overall, the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting trades and the mining industry remain the most dangerous in terms of the number of deaths per 100,000 workers. Injury statistics show a similar breakdown, but education and health care jobs rank much higher in injury totals and rates than they do in fatality rates.

Highway accidents (1,329 deaths, the lowest annual total since 1993) accounted for nearly 1 in 4 of the fatal work injuries in 2006. Construction-associated deaths (1,226) and transportation and warehousing deaths (832) were the other top categories. There was a large increase in aircraft-related fatalities, to 215 work-related deaths involving aircraft.

When sprains and strains, bruises and contusions, cuts and lacerations, and fractures are combined, they account for nearly two-thirds of workplace injury cases resulting in days away from work.

Minimizing or Eliminating Risk
The basic principle of prevention in the workplace as trying to eliminate the risk factor first, and if eliminating risk entirely is impractical or impossible, finding ways to significantly minimize it.

More and more businesses, health care providers, doctors and nurses, and insurance companies are playing direct and proactive roles to reduce the risk of on-the-job illness, injury and death. Deciding where to put injury prevention resources is a balancing act between the nature and overall impact of the risk, whether the risk can actually be avoided or eliminated, and what the benefit of the "fix" is compared to the cost.

Along with changes in the types of jobs workers perform in the US, the research and prevention efforts are bearing fruit as evidenced by continuing declines in occupational injuries and fatalities. The Medical College of Wisconsin has for several years taken the lead in integrating health promotion into the workplace through research and community education and outreach.

Each year, Medical College of Wisconsin physicians care for more than 180,000 patients, representing nearly 500,000 patient visits. Medical College physicians practice at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, the Milwaukee VA Medical Center, and many other hospitals and clinics in Milwaukee and southeastern Wisconsin.