Occupational/Work Safety

1
Occupational/Work Safety

• An Overview

2

• Work/Occupational safety is the area of safety
  that has probably made the most significant
  progress in the United States in the past 100
  years. Why?
• Between 1912 and 2000, unintentional work deaths
  per 100,000 population were reduced over 90,
  from 21 to just under 2.
• In 2000, in a workforce nearly quadruped in size
  and producing nine times the goods and services,
  there were only 5,100 work deaths.

3
Work deaths and injuries - 2000

• Unintentional injury deaths 5,100
• Death rate (per 100,000) lt 2.0
• Disabling injuries 3,800,000
• Costs - 122.6 Billion
• Cost per worker - 910
• This figure indicates the value of goods or
  services each worker must produce to offset the
  cost of work injuries. It is not the average
  cost of a work injury.

4
Individual Industries and death rates

• Mining Quarrying 23.1
• Agriculture 22.5
• Construction 14.0
• Transportation and Public Utilities 10.7

5
Leading Work-Related Injuries

1. Motor-vehicle (including to and from work and
   job-related travel)
2. Falls
3. Nonhighway industrial-vehicle incidents
4. Blows (other than by vehicles or equipment)
5. Electrocutions

6
Leading types of injuries on the job

• Amputations
• Fractures
• Soft tissue injuries
• Sprains
• Strains
• Back injuries
• Contusions
• Eye loss and eye injury
• Lacerations
• Burns

7
Effective Countermeasures

• Physical barriers
• Changes in the design of tools and machinery
• Training of workers in the safe performance of
  tasks
• Repeated, systematic inspection of the workplace
  for emerging or previously undetected hazards.
• A visible, serious, and persistent commitment to
  safety by both management and labor.