The National Safety Council estimates that more than 10,000 workers suffer disabling injuries at work every day. And every day, approximately 14 workers die on the job. Injuries aren't the only problem: A recent study funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) found that more than 60,000 Americans die every year from job-related heart disease, cancer, AIDS, or other illnesses.

The financial toll is enormous as well. Medical bills, lost productivity, and other costs of occupational illnesses and injuries to American workers added up to $574.8 billion in 2004 according to the National Safety Council.

Despite these figures, most people assume their job is safe. After all, they reason, it's the construction workers climbing on the scaffolding and the coal miners digging underground who have to worry about illnesses and injuries -- not the rest of us. This sense of security is not only false, it's a major obstacle to job safety, says David Amos, senior consultant with the National Safety Council's Occupational Safety and Health Unit. "Every job carries risks," he says. "And until workers and their employers take those risks seriously, people will continue to get hurt."

The dangers are as diverse as the jobs. Computer programmers may strain their hands and arms at keyboards, putting them at risk of repetitive stress injury (RSI). Police officers can develop heart disease from chronic stress. House painters sometimes brush against power lines. Day-care workers can catch hepatitis A from dirty diapers, and veterinarians lose fingertips to Dobermans.

Of course, some jobs are much more dangerous than others. Frontline retail sale supervisors run the highest risk of homicide, while college teachers and firefighters are among the least likely to be the target of workplace violence. As for fatal injuries, America's most dangerous jobs are production workers, farm workers, police officers, structural metal workers, electricians, transportation workers, construction workers, and truck drivers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most common cause of death on the job in 2006 was a car accident, followed by falls and being struck by an object.

Business executives, on the other hand, are more likely to suffer stress-related ills than job injuries. Howard Hunt, the president of a management group that conducts health assessments at businesses nationwide, told Industry Week that his data suggests half of all executives have elevated cholesterol levels, a risk factor for heart disease. Their risk for liver disease was also three times higher, often due to excessive alcohol intake. In addition, the Executive Health Program at Duke University Medical Center found weight gain, headaches, high blood pressure, and emotional distress, including sleep disorders and depression, to be common among their patients, according to Industry Week.

But while executives and CEO's aren't immune, workers at the bottom of the employment chain also suffer their share of stress-related problems, Amos says. Some studies suggest that job stress is less likely to cause heart disease in an executive than it is to an overworked administrative assistant with little or no control over her job.

Amos would like to see another myth disappear: Contrary to popular belief, injuries and illnesses don't have to be a part of doing business. The National Safety Council estimates that roughly 90 percent of job-related illnesses and injuries are preventable. The other 10 percent are "acts of God." We may not be able to shield every groundskeeper in America from stray lightning bolts, but we can certainly help protect them from falls and frayed wiring.

Many workers and companies have worked hard to create safe workplaces. Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman announced that 200,000 fewer workers suffered job-related illnesses or injuries despite a 3 percent rise in employment at the end of the 1990s.

To some extent, these numbers reflect the shift to a high-tech economy, Amos says. But Amos also sees a more fundamental reason for the progress: Safety is starting to matter. More and more employers are putting it into their business plans, and more and more workers are keeping it in mind.

The new appreciation for safety can be traced partly to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, legislation that gave employees new rights and employers new responsibilities. As a result to that law, any employee can ask his or her boss about potential hazards in the workplace, or report dangers to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) without fear of reprisal. Since OSHA was created in 1971, the workplace fatality rate has decreased by 78 percent, and workers are 42 percent less likely to get sick or hurt on the job.

This is due in part to OSHA's inspection program, but the agency also stresses its role as a partner with business. Among other things, OSHA provides on-site consultations, compliance assistance, outreach and training, as well as cooperative programs and partnerships to interested companies. Among the businesses enthusiastic about its Strategic Partnership with OSHA is Turner Construction, a general contractor that followed the agency's advice to provide full fall protection -- including harnesses -- to workers on its sites.

The company is glad that it did. Last September, a worker on a Turner site in Green Bay, Wisconsin slipped from a steel beam six stories above the ground, but the protective equipment left him dangling safe in the air. Less than two months later, another worker fell off a high beam, but again escaped serious injury due to his harness. In fact, both returned to work the same day they were rescued!

In addition, some companies have created their own innovative safety outreach campaigns. In 2002, 500 people were killed in highway work zones, leading state departments of transportation (DOT) to increase the publicity for their annual "Give 'Em a Brake'" campaign, which promotes the message that highway work zones "are no place for impatience or aggressive driving" in ads on radio and television. Washington State's DOT has also created a short video on the subject for drivers' education classes and sent members of its staff into high schools to discuss what it's like to lose a coworker to a careless driver.

In 2006, workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry dropped to 4.4 per 100 workers -- the lowest rate recorded since OSHA's inception. But despite this impressive gain, there's still a long way to go. According to the National Safety Council, both employees and employees need to work toward a "safety culture" where health comes first. Doing so will be just another a giant step in the right direction.

-- Chris Woolston, M.S., is a health and medical writer with a master's degree in biology. He is a contributing editor at Consumer Health Interactive, and was the staff writer at Hippocrates, a magazine for physicians. He has also covered science issues for Time Inc. Health, WebMD, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. His reporting on occupational health earned him an award from the northern California Society of Professional Journalists.

Further Resources

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

; 800/35-NIOSH; fax-on-demand: 888/232-3299

National Safety Council

; 1121 Spring Lake Drive; Itasca, IL 60143-3201; 630/285-1121; Fax: 630/285-1315

Department of Labor, Office of Public Affairs

; 200 Constitution Ave., NW Room S-1032; Washington, DC 20210; 202/693-4650

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

; 800/321-OSHA (6742)

References

First published September 19, 2003
Last updated January 7, 2008
Copyright © 2003 Consumer Health Interactive

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