State agencies participate in the collection of the data, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides partial funding and is responsible for maintaining uniform programme requirements.
Additional information).
Data for employees covered by other Federal safety and health legislation are provided by the Mine Safety and Health Administration of the US Department of Labor and the Federal Railroad Administration of the US Department of Transportation.
In 1994, the annual average number of employees in the private sector covered by the survey was about 95,449,300.
Injuries occurring to persons working outside the country are not included in the statistics, which cover only persons employed in the area covered at the time of the injury or illness.
Data are complied for occupational injuries and diseases combined, and for occupational injuries and occupational diseases separately. The injuries are those recorded by employers, in accordance with the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
Commuting accidents are not included.
any injury such as a cut, fracture, sprain, amputation, etc., which results from a work-related event or from a single instantaneous exposure in the work environment.
the number of workdays on which the injured employee would have worked but could not, excluding the day of the injury.
those cases which result in days away from work, or a combination of days away from work and days of restricted work activity.
those cases which result only in restricted work activity, i.e. the days on which, because of injury or illness, the employee was assigned to another job on a temporary basis, worked at a permanent job less than full time, or worked at a permanently assigned job but could not perform all duties normally connected with it.
The unit of measure used in the statistics is the case of injury or illness.
Minimum period of absence from work:
none.
(The statistics supplied to the ILO for publication in the
Yearbook of Labour Statistics
refer to injuries and illness
with lost workdays, i.e. with a minimum absence of one day,
excluding the day of the accident).
Maximum period for death to be considered a fatal occupational injury:
not relevant.
(a) personal characteristics of persons injured:
sex, age, race or ethnic background, occupation and length of
service in the establishment;
(b) amount of worktime lost:
the number of days away from work;
(c) characteristics of accidents:
event(s) that occurred causing the injury or illness; source of
the injury or illness;
(d) characteristics of injuries:
part of body affected; nature of the injury or illness;
(e) characteristics of employers or workplaces:
economic activity (for all employers, whether or not there were
any occupational injuries or illnesses).
characteristics of the case
: the coding structure
developed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is hierarchical and
provides detail up to the four-digit level; the following gives
the Occupational Injury and Illness Classification Structure at
the two-digit level:
nature of injury or illness
: traumatic injuries
and disorders (traumatic injuries and disorders, unspecified;
traumatic injuries to bones, nerves, spinal cord; traumatic
injuries to muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, etc.; open
wounds; surface wounds; burns; intracranial injuries; effects of
environmental conditions; multiple traumatic injuries and
disorders; other traumatic injuries and disorders); systemic
diseases and disorders (systemic diseases and disorders,
unspecified; diseases of the blood and blood forming organs;
nervous system and sense organ diseases; circulatory system
diseases; respiratory system diseases; digestive system diseases
and disorders; genitourinary system diseases and disorders;
musculoskeletal system and connective tissue diseases and
disorders; disorders of the skin and subcutaneous tissue; other
systemic diseases and disorders); infectious and parasitic
diseases (infectious and parasitic diseases, unspecified;
bacterial diseases; viral diseases; other arthropod-borne
diseases; mycoses; helminthiases; infectious diseases peculiar to
the intestines; other infectious and parasitic diseases);
neoplasms, tumours and cancer (malignant neoplasms and tumours
(cancers, carcinomas, sarcomas); benign neoplasms and tumours;
neoplasms and tumours of unknown properties); symptoms, signs and
ill-defined conditions (symptoms, signs and ill-defined
conditions, unspecified; symptoms; abnormal findings; multiple
symptoms, signs and ill-defined conditions; symptoms, signs and
ill-defined conditions, not elsewhere classified); other
diseases, conditions and disorders (damage to prosthetic devices;
mental disorders or syndromes; other diseases, conditions and
disorders, not elsewhere classified); multiple diseases,
conditions and disorders; non-classifiable;
part of body
: head (head, unspecified; cranial region,
including skull; ear(s); face; multiple head locations; head, not
elsewhere classified); neck, including throat (neck, except
internal location of diseases or disorders; internal neck
location, unspecified; vocal cord(s); larynx; laryngopharynx;
pharynx; trachea; multiple internal neck locations; internal neck
location, not elsewhere classified); trunk (trunk, unspecified;
shoulder, including clavicle, scapula; chest, including ribs,
internal organs; back, including spine, spinal cord; abdomen;
pelvic region; multiple trunk locations; trunk, not elsewhere
classified); upper extremities (upper extremities, unspecified;
arm(s); wrist(s); hand(s), except fingers; finger(s),
fingernail(s); multiple upper extremities locations; upper
extremities, not elsewhere classified); lower extremities (lower
extremities, unspecified; leg(s); ankle(s); foot(feet), except
toes; toe(s), toenail(s); multiple lower extremities locations;
lower extremities, not elsewhere classified); body systems;
multiple body parts; other body parts (prosthetic devices; other
body parts, not elsewhere classified; non-classifiable);
source of injury or illness
: chemicals and chemical products
(chemicals and chemical products, unspecified; acids; alkalies;
aromatics and hydrocarbon derivatives, except halogenated;
halogens and halogen compounds; metallic particulates, trace
elements, dusts, powders, fumes; agricultural chemicals and other
pesticides; chemical products, general; coal, natural gas,
petroleum fuels and products, not elsewhere classified; other
chemicals); containers (containers, unspecified; containers -
non-pressurized; containers - pressurized; containers - variable
restraint; dishes, drinking cups, beverage glasses; luggage,
handbags; skids, pallets; containers, not elsewhere classified);
furniture and fixtures (furniture and fixtures, unspecified;
cases, cabinets, racks, shelves; floor, wall, window coverings;
furniture; other fixtures; furniture and fixtures, not elsewhere
classified); machinery (machinery, unspecified; agricultural and
garden machinery; construction, logging and mining machinery;
heating, cooling and cleaning machinery and appliances; material
handling machinery; metal, woodworking and special material
machinery; office and business machinery; special process
machinery; miscellaneous machinery); parts and materials (parts
and materials, unspecified; building materials - solid elements;
fasteners, connectors, ropes, ties; hoisting accessories;
machine, tool and electric parts; metal materials -
non-structural; tars, sealants, caulking, insulating material;
tarps and sheeting - non-metal; vehicle and mobile equipment
parts; parts and materials, not elsewhere classified); person,
plants, animals and minerals (animals and animal products; food
products - fresh or processed; infectious and parasitic agents;
metallic minerals; non-metallic minerals, except fuel; person -
injured or ill worker; person - other than injured or ill worker;
plants, trees, vegetation - not processed; persons, plants,
animals and minerals, not elsewhere classified); structures and
surfaces (structures and surfaces, unspecified; building systems;
floors, walkways, ground surfaces; other structural elements;
structures; structures and surfaces, not elsewhere classified);
tools, instruments and equipment; tools, instruments and
equipment, unspecified; hand tools - non-powered; hand tools -
powered; hand tools - power not determined; ladders; medical and
surgical instruments; photographic equipment; protective
equipment, except clothing; recreation and athletic equipment;
other tools, instruments and equipment, not elsewhere
classified); vehicles (vehicles, unspecified; air vehicle;
highway vehicle, motorized; highway vehicle, non-motorized; off
road vehicle, non-industrial; plant and industrial powered
vehicles, tractors; plant and industrial vehicles - non-powered;
rail vehicle; water vehicle; vehicles, not elsewhere class
ified); other sources (ammunition; apparel and textiles;
atmospheric and environmental conditions; paper, books,
magazines; scrap, waste, debris; steam, vapours, liquids, not
elsewhere classified; other sources, not elsewhere classified;
non-classifiable);
event
: contact with objects and equipment (contact with
objects and equipment, unspecified; struck against object; struck
by object; caught in or compressed by equipment or objects;
caught in or crushed in collapsing materials; rubbed or abraded
by friction or pressure; rubbed, abraded or jarred by vibration;
contact with objects and equipment, not elsewhere classified);
falls (fall, unspecified; fall to lower level; jump to lower
level; fall on same level; fall, not elsewhere classified);
bodily reaction and exertion (bodily reaction and exertion,
unspecified; bodily reaction; overexertion; repetitive motion;
sustained viewing; bodily conditions, not elsewhere classified;
bodily reaction and exertion, not elsewhere classified); exposure
to harmful substances or environments (exposure to harmful
substances or environments, unspecified; contact with electric
current; contact with temperature extremes; exposure to air
pressure changes; exposure to caustic, noxious or allergenic
substances; exposure to noise; exposure to radiation; exposure to
traumatic or stressful event, not elsewhere classified; oxygen
deficiency, not elsewhere classified; exposure to harmful
substances or environments, not elsewhere classified);
transportation accidents; transportation accident, unspecified;
highway accident; non-highway accident, except rail, air, water;
pedestrian, non-passenger struck by vehicle, mobile equipment;
railway accident; water vehicle accident; aircraft accident;
transportation accident, not elsewhere classified); fires and
explosions (fire or explosion, unspecified; fire - unintended or
uncontrolled; explosion); assaults and violent acts (assaults and
violent acts, unspecified; assaults and violent acts by person;
self-inflicted injury; assaults by animals); other events or
exposures (non-classifiable);
A case of injury or illness is included in the statistics for the period in which the accident occurred.
Worktime lost is included in the statistics for the period in which the accident occurred; it may include time lost beyond the reference year.
Median number of days away from work, for selected characteristics.
Percentage distributions of cases of injury or illness and days away from work, for selected characteristics.
Selected data from the survey, such as length of service with the employer, are also used to produce weighted estimates: e.g. the percentage of all cases with less than three months' tenure and involving a certain number of days away from work.
Incidence rates: the number of cases of injury or illness per 100 full-time workers, estimated as: N / EH x 200,000
where:
N = number of cases of injury or illness
EH = total hours worked by all employees during the calendar year
200,000 = base for 100 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week for 50 weeks per year)
Incidence rates per 10,000 full-time workers are similarly calculated for illnesses and for selected characteristics.
Incidence rates are calculated for all cases of injury, injuries with lost worktime and injuries without lost worktime. They are also calculated for selected characteristics.
It was not until the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 that the Bureau of Labor Statistics was given responsibility for developing a comprehensive system of statistics covering all work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses. Shortly after, the Bureau, in cooperation with many State governments, designed an annual survey to estimate the number and frequency of work-related injuries and illnesses throughout the country and for several hundred individual economic activities. Statistics of occupational injuries and diseases are available for the whole country as from 1972.
In 1992, the survey first began to collect information on the demographic and case characteristics of injuries involving days away from work, as well as the number of days away from work associated with these cases and their characteristics. A separate census of fatal occupational injuries was also developed (see below).
The following sets of tables showing the characteristics of cases of injury or illness are also published:
US Department of Labor, Bureau of
Labor Statistics: Occupational Injuries and Illnesses: Counts,
Rates and Characteristics
(annual).
idem: Workplace injuries and illnesses
(Press release,
annual).
idem: Characteristics of injuries and illnesses resulting in
absences from work
(Press release, annual).
In addition, analytical articles are published periodically in
US Department of Labor: Monthly Labor Review
and
Compensation
and Working Conditions
.
Methodological information is published in Occupational
Injuries and Illness: Counts, Rates and Characteristics
(op
cit.), and in the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Handbook of
Methods
.
Not all the data are published because of space limitations in the annual bulletin. If data are publishable, but not published, they can be made available on request addressed to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data are also available on the World Wide Web (BLS World Wide Web site: www.bls.gov).
Data on rates of injury and illness from 1981 to the most recent year, classified at the two-digit level of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). Injury and illness rates from 1976 to the most recent year classified at the two-, three- and four-digit level of the SIC are available on tape.
Yearbook of Labour Statistics, relating to reported injuries (including occupational diseases) according to major division of economic activity: number of persons injured (cases of injury or illness) with lost workdays. Data on the number of fatal injuries and rates of fatal injuries were provided up to 1991, and the number of workdays lost up to 1992. The number of persons at risk (total number of employees in private industry) is also supplied and stored in the LABORSTA database.
Data that are not published for a particular activity are included in the total for the broader group of which it is a part. In addition, selected items of data are suppressed for publishable activities if the sampling error for the estimate is 100 per cent or above.
Input from all parties interested in statistics on occupational safety and health is solicited in the Federal Register. Both formal and informal meetings are held with representatives of the interested groups. For example, the National Academy of Science provided input to the current survey design. The Bureau of Labor Statistics continuously invites ideas from users and experts in business, labour, professional and academic organizations, and from members of the public. The Commissioner for Labour Statistics established two standing advisory committees in 1947: the Business Research Advisory Council and the Labor Research Advisory Council. A third council, the State Research Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health was in existence from 1989 to 1994. These councils advise on technical problems and provide views on Bureau programmes in relation to the needs of their members.
The form used in the survey consists of the following:
Name and address of the establishment (prefilled from the information in the State Unemployment Insurance lists.
Part 1: summary of occupational injuries and illness, to be completed by all establishments in the sample, even if there were no occupational injuries or illnesses during the reference year:
Part 2: information about cases with days away from work: for each case (up to four are provided for in the form):
The sampling unit is the establishment, defined as a single physical location where business is conducted or where services or industrial operations are performed. The sampling units are stratified by State, size (number of employees) and economic activity, and an independent sample is selected for each State, so as to permit the data needs of participating State agencies. The largest establishments are all included in the sample; smaller establishments are selected in proportion to size. Thus, the largest establishments are included in the sample each year, while the smaller ones are selected less frequently.
There is no replacement of sampling units in the case of non-response.
Information for the injury and illness portion of the form is copied directly from the employer records of occupational injuries and illnesses.
The responses are generally received around the middle of the year.
The system checks each summary data element for validity, the
summary record for consistency, and for consistency between data
elements on the summary form and its related case forms. This
edit process identifies invalid and questionable conditions that
must be reviewed and clarified. Values in selected data fields
on usable records are imputed if the employer failed to provided
the data or if the data did not pass the edit criteria. Both
demographic and case characteristics from the Days away from
work
case forms are coded and entered into the system.
The employer may be recontacted by telephone or letter if no response has been obtained or if data need to be clarified.
Xi = Σj W ij Xij
where:
Xi = weighted estimate of characteristics, e.g. number of cases reported, in size class i
Wij = weight of sample unit (establishment) j, in size class i, adjusted for frame and collection problems
Xij = characteristics reported by sample unit j, in size class i
If a respondent provides data that do not cover exactly the original sample unit, the sample unit's weight may be adjusted.
Benchmarking adjusts the data to reflect employment levels for the year surveyed. The universe file which provides the sample frame uses older data. The benchmarking procedure uses more recent employment data. Totals are estimated in an individual estimating cell using the weighted estimate of the characteristics.
The standard error varies according to the estimate which is examined. At the level of the private sector for total recordable cases, the error may be one per cent; for a specific category of illness in a specific small economic activity, the error may be above 50 per cent.
The sampling variance is estimated using a linearization formula.
Non-sampling errors in the estimates may be attributed to many sources, including the inability to obtain information about all the cases in the sample units, differences in the interpretation of questions, inability or unwillingness of respondents to provide the correct information, mistakes in recording or coding the data, definitional difficulties, and estimations for missing data.
Record-keeping and reporting of occupational injuries and illnesses
The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970 requires covered employers to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the US Department of Labor is responsible for administering the record-keeping system established by the act. Nearly all private sector employers are covered by the OSHA, except small farms with fewer than 11 employees. All employees and volunteers who receive compensation in those establishments are covered.
Two forms are used for OSHA record-keeping in the establishment. One (OSHA No. 200) serves two purposes: (a) as the Log of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, on which the occurrence, extent and outcome of cases are recorded during the year, and (b) as the Summary of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses which summarizes the log at the end of the year. The other form, the Supplementary Record of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (OSHA No. 101) provides additional information on each of the cases that have been recorded on the log, recording a description of how the injury or illness exposure occurred, a list of the objects or substances involved, and an indication of the nature of the injury or illness and the part of the body affected.
Ordinarily, injury and illness records must be kept for each establishment covered by the OSH Act. The regulations require that records be located and maintained at this level to assist government agencies administering and enforcing the act, to increase employer and employee awareness and to promote injury and illness prevention. The following cases should be recorded: every occupational death, every non-fatal occupational illness and those non-fatal occupational injuries involving one or more of the following: loss of consciousness, restriction of work or motion, transfer to another job or medical treatment other than first aid.
The OSH Act requires employers to make periodic reports of deaths,injuries and illnesses which have been recorded on the OSHA injury and illness records. This periodic reporting is accomplished through the Annual Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses described above, and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries described below.
Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries is carried out each year by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data are the most complete count of fatal occupational injuries and provide information that is needed for the design and implementation of effective public policy in safety and health. The Census was initiated in 1992, as studies had shown that fatal work injuries were rare events in the workplace, and could not be covered sufficiently well using probability samples, as in the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
Coverage: The Census covers all employees and self-employed persons in all economic activities throughout the country (about 124,000,000 persons on average in 1994).
Types of occupational accidents covered: The statistics relate to all types of fatal occupational injuries. Deaths due to commuting accidents are not included. For a fatality to be included, the person must have been employed (i.e. working for pay, compensation or profit) at the time of the event, engaged in a legal work activity or present at the site of the incident as a requirement of the job.
Concepts and definitions:
An occupational injury
is defined as any intentional or
unintentional wound or damage to the body resulting from acute
exposure to energy, such as heat or electricity, or kinetic
energy from a crash; or from the absence of such essentials as
heat or oxygen caused by a specific event, incident, or series of
events within a single workday or shift. Included are open
wounds, intracranial and internal injuries, heatstroke,
hypothermia, asphyxiations, acute poisonings resulting from a
short-term exposure limited to the worker's shift, suicides and
homicides and work injuries listed as underlying or contributory
to the cause of death.
Any death that was the result of an occupational injury is counted regardless of the lapse of time between the injury and the death. However, deaths occurring within 30 days of the injury are also reported, for comparison with other statistics.
Types of information compiled:
The following data elements are recorded for each fatality:
Reference period: Fatalities are included in the statistics for the period in which the death occurred.
Documentation:
The data are published in US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor
Statistics: Fatal workplace injuries: A collection of data and
analysis
(annual), which also contains research papers. Data for
1993 were published in 1995. Methodological information is
included in this publication and in the Bureau of Labor
Statistics Handbook of Methods
. Because the current methodology
differs from that used in previous years, no data from the Census
have yet been supplied to the ILO for publication in the Yearbook
of Labour Statistics
.
Not all the data are published because of space limitations. Additional data that meet publication standards are available on request addressed to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data are available to the public in printed form only, although some data are also available on the World Wide Web (BLS World Wide Web site: http://www.bls.gov).
Method of data collection: The Census is carried out on a contractual basis with States; operating costs are shared equally between the States and the US Federal Government.
The data are collected on an ongoing basis during the calendar year, from various source documents, such as death certificates, workers' compensation reports, Federal reports (OSHA) and newspaper articles. A follow-up questionnaire is used in about 20 per cent of the cases to solicit missing information about the incident. The employer may be recontacted by mail or letter, or both, if no response has been obtained or if data need to be clarified. The information is coded by the States and entered into a computer system which edits data for validity and consistency between data elements. This edit process identifies invalid and questionable conditions that should be reviewed and clarified. Records are also sampled and independently coded manually, then the codes compared to ensure that the coded information is consistent and that there are no systematic errors. If significant errors are found in the coding, the entire batch of records is reviewed manually for accuracy.