In This Issue |
Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Virginia Have Highest Rates of Work-related Deaths in Southeastern United States
No matter what our occupation is, we assume that we will come home at the end of each workday. As we say, “See you tonight!” or think about what to make for dinner, when to walk the dog, or what time the television show starts, the underlying assumption is that we will be safe at work. Indeed, work-related injury and death are preventable, but statistics indicate that they still occur far too often. In fact, approximately 12 U.S. workers on average die each day from a work-related injury, with 4,821 U.S. workers dying in 2014 from injuries sustained at work.
Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation Has Helped Improve Worker Safety
If you have ever tried to move furniture or struggled to lift heavy grocery bags out of the trunk of your car, you know that manual lifting puts lots of strain on your body. For workers who manually lift items as part of their job, and for their employers, knowing where the strain comes from can help prevent serious low back injury and its associated missed workdays and lost productivity. Recognizing the importance of lifting-related risk factors for low back injury, investigators at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed the NIOSH Lifting Equation in 1981 and then expanded and released it as the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation in 1993. The revised equation provides a proven formula for calculating a lifting index for designing safe lifting tasks to prevent work-related low back pain. However, its impact on research, industry practices, and regulations has remained unclear.
Can Emergency Department Surveillance Data Help Assess Occupational Injury Underreporting?
Visit any emergency department in the United States and you may find individuals who were injured or who became ill on the job. In 2013 alone, an estimated 2.7 million workers received treatment in emergency departments for nonfatal work-related injuries and illnesses. Although work-related deaths may receive more media attention, nonfatal injuries and illnesses take a toll on workers’ health and quality of life and often contribute to missed workdays and decreased productivity.
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