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Chapter 9.
Occupational Safety and Health Statistics
Overview
Data on safety and health conditions for
workers on the job have been produced by the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) since before World War I. The
first report issued by BLS summarized industrial
accidents in the iron and steel industries during the war
period, presenting information on the frequency and
severity of injuries, the occupation of the injured
workers, and the nature of their injuries.1 Work-related illnesses also
were the subject of BLS studies conducted in the early
1900s, such as the pioneering research on lead poisoning
in the workplace by Dr. Alice Hamilton.2
It was not, however, until the passage of the
Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 that the
Bureau was delegated responsibility for developing a
comprehensive statistical system covering work-related
deaths, injuries, and illnesses in private industry. In
1972, the Bureau, in cooperation with many State
governments, designed an annual survey to estimate the
number and frequency of work-related injuries and
illnesses by detailed industry for the Nation and for
States participating in the survey. This survey
information continues to be of value to the safety
community in allocating prevention resources among
several hundred industries, across which workers' risks
of injury and illness vary widely.
As originally designed, however, the survey had its
shortcomings. Although it pinpointed dangerous work
settings, the survey shed little light on the injury or
illness characteristics of the incidents, for example,
the manner in which they occurred and what occupations
were involved.3 The
survey also failed to produce a comprehensive count of
workers dying on the job or profiles depicting the
victims' demographics and the circumstances surrounding
their deaths.
In 1987, a National Academy of Sciences study
recommended that these deficiencies be corrected by
collecting detailed data on severe, nonfatal occupational
injuries reported in the survey and by compiling complete
rosters of occupational fatalities from administrative
records, such as death certificates and workers'
compensation reports.4
This critical review of the survey, which spotlighted
longstanding deficiencies, provided the impetus for its
redesign.
With congressional funding, technical support from the
safety and health community, and assistance from some 40
participating States, the Bureau began a multi-year
effort to redesign and test an improved safety and health
statistical system, which was fully implemented in 1992.
Beginning with that year, survey information on nonfatal
incidents involving days away from work has been expanded
to profile (1) the occupation and other demographics (age
and gender, for example) of workers sustaining such
injuries and illnesses, (2) the nature of these disabling
conditions and how they occurred, and (3) the resulting
time away from work. In addition, work-related fatalities
are counted and profiled more accurately in a separate
national BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. In
1995, the latest year for which data are available, the
survey profiled about 3 million disabling incidents
involving lost worktime in the private sector and the BLS
census reported on about 6,200 fatal work injuries in the
private and public sectors.
Footnotes
1The Safety Movement in the Iron and Steel
Industry, Bulletin 234 (Bureau of Labor Statistics,
1918).
2The White-Lead Industry in the United States,
Bulletin 95 (Bureau of Labor, 1911). 3Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, a limited
amount of data on worker and case characteristics was
aggregated for selected States participating in the
Supplementary Data System and Work Injury Reports. For a
description of those programs, see BLS Handbook of
Methods, Bulletin 2414 (Bureau of Labor
Statistics, 1992), chapter 14.
4See E.S. Pollack and D.F. Keimig, eds., Counting
Injuries and Illnesses in the Workplace: Proposals
for a Better System (Washington, National Research
Council, National Academy Press, 1987), pp. 103-06.
Next:
Part 1: Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses
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Bureau of Labor Statistics
