Bureau of Labor Statistics
General Information: (312) 353-1880 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact: Paul LaPorte Friday, October 19, 2007
(312) 353-1138
http://www.bls.gov/ro5
Data Tables
IOWA WORKPLACE FATALITIES, 2006 Fatal work injuries in Iowa totaled 71 in 2006, a decrease of 19 from the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. (See table A.) Regional Commissioner Jay A. Mousa noted that the most frequent types of fatal workplace events in Iowa in 2006 were highway crashes (16), nonhighway transportation incidents, such as those that might occur on a farm or industrial premises (11), and falls to a lower level (11). Taken together, these three events1 accounted for more than one-half of the workplace fatalities in the State. The number of deaths resulting from highway crashes in Iowa in 2006 was unchanged over the year at 16, accounting for 23 percent the State's fatality count. Nationally, highway crashes also accounted for 23 percent of all fatal work injuries. In 2006, nonhighway transportation incidents were responsible for 11 on-the-job fatalities in Iowa, a decline of 7 deaths from 18 recorded in 2005, which was the second highest level since the fatality census was first conducted in 1992. The highest number of deaths, 20, occurred in 1994 and the lowest,5, in the following year. Nonhighway transportation incidents accounted for 15 percent of Iowa's workplace fatalities in 2006, compared to 6 percent for the nation. On-the-job fatalities from falls to a lower level in 2006 numbered 11, or 15 percent of the State's total fatal work incidents. Since the inception of the census, the number of fatalities in Iowa attributed to this event has ranged from a low of 3 deaths in both 1999 and 2003 to a high of 14 cases in 2004. Nationwide, falls to a lower level comprised 13 percent of all work- related fatalities in 2006. Other work-related fatalities in Iowa in 2006 included struck by object (5), pedestrian struck by vehicle or mobile equipment (4), caught in or compressed by equipment or objects (3), caught in or crushed in collapsing materials (3), and electrocutions (3). Combined, these five events accounted for about 25 percent of the State's fatal work injuries. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Fatal events are categorized into several major groupings including transportation incidents, assaults and violent acts, and falls. These major groups are further broken down into more detailed groups. For example, transportation incidents includes highway incidents and aircraft incidents; assaults and violent acts includes homicides and suicides; and falls includes falls to a lower level (as from a roof or ladder) and falls on the same level (as from grease on a floor or ice on a sidewalk). Table A. Fatal occupational injuries in Iowa by selected event groups, 1992-2006 -------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Nonhighway | Year | Total | Highway |transportation| Falls to a | fatali-| crashes | incidents | lower level | ties |---------------------------------------------- | |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent -------------------------------------------------------------- 1992 110 25 23 16 15 9 8 1993 88 25 28 8 9 5 6 1994 74 16 22 20 27 -- -- 1995 54 9 17 5 9 6 11 1996 70 13 19 12 17 10 14 1997 80 22 28 10 13 10 13 1998 68 9 13 12 18 7 10 1999 80 22 28 10 13 3 4 2000 71 16 23 11 15 13 18 2001 62 16 26 6 10 8 13 2002 57 9 16 9 16 11 19 2003 76 17 22 16 21 3 4 2004 82 13 16 13 16 14 17 2005 90 16 18 18 20 7 8 2006 71 16 23 11 15 11 15 ---------------------------------------------------------------- -- Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria. Nationwide, a total of 5,703 fatal work injuries were reported in 2006, down slightly from the revised total of 5,734 fatal work injuries recorded in 2005. The count for 2006 was the third lowest annual total recorded by the fatality census, which has been conducted yearly since 1992. (See table B.) The 2006 count of 1,329 fatal highway crashes was the lowest annual total since 1993. Highway crashes in 2006 accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries and continued to lead all other events in the frequency of on-the-job fatalities. Fatal work injuries involving falls to a lower level increased 10 percent in 2006 after a sharp decrease in 2005. The 2006 total of 728 fatal falls to a lower level was the second highest since the fatality census began. The number of workers who were fatally injured from being struck by objects was lower in 2006, after increasing for the last three years. The 583 fatalities resulting from being struck by objects in 2006 represented a 4-percent decline from the 2005 total. Workplace homicides decreased 9 percent to 516 in 2006, the lowest annual total ever reported by the fatality census. Overall, workplace homicides have decreased more than 50 percent from the series high in 1994. Table B. Fatal occupational injuries in the United States by selected event groups, 1992-2006 -------------------------------------------------------------- | | | Nonhighway | Year | Total | Highway |transportation| Falls to a | fatali-| crashes | incidents | lower level | ties |---------------------------------------------- | |Number|Percent|Number|Percent|Number|Percent -------------------------------------------------------------- 1992 6,217 1,158 19 436 7 507 8 1993 6,331 1,242 20 392 6 534 8 1994 6,632 1,343 20 409 6 580 9 1995 6,275 1,346 21 387 6 578 9 1996 6,202 1,346 22 374 6 610 10 1997 6,238 1,393 22 377 6 653 10 1998 6,055 1,442 24 388 6 625 10 1999 6,054 1,496 25 352 6 634 10 2000 5,920 1,365 23 399 7 659 11 2001 1/ 5,915 1,409 24 326 6 700 12 2002 5,534 1,373 25 323 6 638 12 2003 5,575 1,353 24 347 6 604 11 2004 5,764 1,398 24 338 6 738 13 2005 2/ 5,734 1,437 25 340 6 664 12 2006 5,703 1,329 23 342 6 728 13 --------------------------------------------------------------- 1/ Totals for 2001 exclude fatalities due to the events of September 11, 2001 which claimed the lives of 2,886 persons in work status. 2/ The BLS news release issued August 10, 2006, reported a total of 5,702 fatal work injuries for calendar year 2005. Since then, an additional 32 job-related fatalities were identified, bringing the total job-related fatality count for 2005 to 5,734 Key characteristics of workplace fatalities in Iowa in 2006: - Men accounted for 97 percent of the work-related fatalities in the State with 69 deaths. Transportation incidents, which include highway, nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail, accounted for slightly more than one-half of these deaths. - In Iowa, 97 percent of those who died from a workplace injury were white non-Hispanics. - Workers 25-54 years old-the prime working age group-accounted for 49 percent of the State's work-related fatalities in 2006; those 55 years or older made up 44 percent. Nationally, those 25- 54 years old accounted for 64 percent of on-the-job fatalities, and those 55 and older, 27 percent. - Of the 71 workers killed on the job in Iowa, just under two- thirds worked for wages and salaries and the other one-third were self-employed. - Among industry sectors, construction had the largest number of fatalities (18) followed by agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting (16), and transportation and warehousing (11). Transportation incidents accounted for the majority of the fatalities in both the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector and the transportation and warehousing sector. Falls were the most frequent type of fatal event in construction. - Transportation and material moving occupations led all other occupational groups with 26 worker fatalities. Within this major occupational group, motor vehicle operators accounted for 16 of these deaths and material movers, 7. Management occupations suffered the second highest number of work-related fatalities, 21. Specifically, agriculture managers, which include farm and ranch managers, accounted for 16 of these fatalities and construction managers, 5. Additional data available Additional Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data are available from the BLS Web site at www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm. Data tables for 2006 are available for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and selected metropolitan areas. Detailed data may be accessed through the online query system located at http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/outside.jsp?survey=fi. For additional information or assistance, please contact the Midwest Information Office in Chicago at (312) 353-1880, menu option 0. TECHNICAL NOTE Background of the program The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, part of the BLS occupational safety and health statistics program, compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. in each calendar year. The program uses diverse State and Federal data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. Information about each workplace fatality (industry, occupation, and other worker characteristics; equipment being used; and circumstances of the event) is obtained by cross-referencing source documents, such as death certificates, workers' compensation records, news accounts, and reports to Federal and State agencies. This method assures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. Definitions For a fatality to be included in the census, the decedent must have been employed (that is 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 his or her job. Fatalities to volunteer and unpaid family workers who perform the same duties and functions as paid workers are also included in the counts. These criteria are generally broader than those used by Federal and State agencies administering specific laws and regulations. (Fatalities that occur during a person's normal commute to or from work are excluded from the census counts.) Data presented in this release include deaths occurring in 2006 that resulted from traumatic occupational injuries. An injury is defined as any wound or damage to the body resulting from acute exposure to energy, such as heat, electricity, or impact from a crash or fall, or from the absence of such essentials as heat or oxygen caused by a specific event or incident within a single workday or shift. Included are open wounds, intracranial and internal injuries, heatstroke, hypothermia, asphyxiation, acute poisonings resulting from short-term exposures limited to the worker's shift, suicides and homicides, and work injuries listed as underlying or contributory causes of death. Information on work-related fatal illnesses is not reported in the BLS census and is excluded from the attached tables because the latency period of many occupational illnesses and the difficulty of linking illnesses to work exposures make identification of a universe problematic. Measurement techniques and limitations Data for the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries are compiled from various Federal, State, and local administrative sources-including death certificates, workers' compensation reports and claims, reports to various regulatory agencies, medical examiner reports, and police reports-as well as news and other non- governmental reports. Diverse sources are used because studies have shown that no single source captures all job-related fatalities. Source documents are matched so that each fatality is counted only once. To ensure that a fatality occurred while the decedent was at work, information is verified from two or more independent source documents or from a source document and a follow- up questionnaire. Approximately 30 data elements are collected, coded, and tabulated, including information about the worker, the fatal incident, and the machinery or equipment involved. Federal/State agency coverage The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries includes data for all fatal work injuries, whether the decedent was working in a job covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or other Federal or State agencies or was outside the scope of regulatory coverage. Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions being used by each agency. Several Federal and State agencies have jurisdiction over workplace safety and health. OSHA and affiliated agencies in States with approved safety programs cover the largest portion of the nation's workers. However, injuries and illnesses occurring in certain industries or activities, such as coal, metal, and nonmetal mining and highway, water, rail, and air transportation, are excluded from OSHA coverage because they are covered by other Federal agencies, such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration and various agencies within the Department of Transportation. Fatalities occurring among several other groups of workers are generally not covered by any Federal or State agencies. These groups include self-employed and unpaid family workers, which accounted for about 18 percent of the fatalities; laborers on small farms, accounting for about 1 percent of the fatalities; and State and local government employees in States without OSHA-approved safety programs, which accounted for about 4 percent. (Approximately one-half of the States have approved OSHA safety programs, which cover State and local government employees.) Acknowledgments BLS thanks the Iowa Division of Labor Services for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all Federal, State, local, and private sector agencies that submitted source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Employment Standards Administration (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' divisions); the Department of Energy; State vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; State departments of health, labor and industries, and workers' compensation agencies; State and local police departments; and State farm bureaus.
Last Modified Date: October 19, 2007
