A new study by the AFL-CIO with the provocative title, "Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect," offers a nationwide state-by-state profile of worker safety and health in the U.S. Released in April, the 2010 study is the nineteenth such report from the labor group. It offers data and analysis of workplace safety for calendar year 2008, and information and analysis of recent legislative and regulatory activity.
In 2008, more than 4.6 million work-related injuries were reported, and 5,214 workers were killed on the job; an estimated 50,000 died from occupational diseases.
According to the researchers, the number of fatalities and injuries varies widely from state to state. Wyoming had the highest fatality rate (11.6 per 100,000), followed by Alaska (9.9), Montana (8.3), North Dakota (7.8) and South Dakota (6.9). New Hampshire recorded the lowest state fatality rate (1.0 per 100,000), followed by Rhode Island (1.2), Connecticut (1.6), Massachusetts (2.1) and Maryland (2.1). The national fatality rate was 3.7 per 100,000 workers in 2008.
Although fatalities for Latino workers showed a slight decrease (804 fatal injuries in 2008 compared to 937 in 2007), that segment of the population continues to be at increased risk, with a fatality rate of 4.2 per 100,000 workers in 2008. Sixty-three percent of the 804 Latino fatalities in 2008 (503 deaths) were among workers born outside the U.S. California, Texas and Florida had the greatest number of foreign-born worker fatalities in 2008, with 145, 104 and 86 deaths, respectively. The number of fatalities among black or African-American workers decreased to 533 in 2008, down from 609 in 2007.
In 2008, a number of states experienced large increases in fatality rates from their 2007 rates. South Dakota led the way with a 35 percent increase, followed by Rhode Island (33 percent), Idaho (21 percent) and Maine (16 percent).
The construction sector had the largest number of fatal work injuries (975) in 2008, followed by transportation and warehousing (796) and agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (672). In industry, the highest fatality rates were experienced in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (30.4 per 100,000), mining (18.1 per 100,000) and transportation and warehousing (14.9 per 100,000).
The number of workplace homicides decreased substantially, from 628 in 2007 to 526 in 2008. However, workplace suicides increased by 28 percent to an all-time high of 263 in 2008 compared with 196 in 2007.
Injuries and Illnesses
The AFL-CIO report also showed that in 2008, 3.7 million injuries and illnesses were reported in private-sector workplaces, a decrease from 4 million in 2007. However, data from a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey of work-related injuries and illnesses among state and local government workers revealed that an additional 938,000 workers nationwide were injured or made sick in 2008, for a total of 4.6 million workers nationwide.
The national injury and illness rate for the private sector in 2008 was 3.9 per 100 workers; the rate for all industries including state and local government workers was 4.2 per 100 workers. The injury and illness rates for state and local government workers combined was 6.3 per 100 workers, with state government workers alone at 4.7 per 100 workers and local government workers at a rate of 7.0 per 100 workers, nearly double that of the rate in private industry.
Manufacturing accounted for the highest number of non-fatal workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry in 2008 at 18.7 percent. The health care and social assistance industry accounted for 17.9 percent, followed by the retail trade industry at 14.4 percent.
Thirty-one percent of all cases of injuries and illnesses involving days away from work, job transfer or restriction in private industry occurred in the trade, transportation and utilities industry. The highest number of injuries involving days away from work involved laborers and materials movers, heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers, nurses' aides and orderlies, construction laborers and retail salespersons.
The median number of days away from work for lost-time injury cases in private industry was eight days in 2008, with 26 percent of all days away from work cases resulting in 31 or more days away from work.
The AFL-CIO report said that the cost of job injuries and illnesses is estimated at $156 billion to $312 billion a year for direct and indirect costs of disabling injuries.
The 178-page report is available in pdf at www.aflcio.org.
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