August 5, 1999 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Meat packing plants have the highest rate of repeated-trauma disorders

Workers in meat packing plants experienced the highest incidence rate of disorders associated with repeated trauma in 1996. There were 921.6 cases per 10,000 full-time workers in meat packing plants, compared to 33.5 cases per 10,000 workers in private industry as a whole.

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The knit underwear mills industry reported an incidence rate of repeated-trauma disorders which was just below the top rate, at 910.4 cases per 10,000 workers. Others in the group of five industries with the highest incidence rates were motor vehicles and car bodies (710.5), household laundry equipment manufacturing (547.1), and poultry slaughtering and processing (535.0).

All 25 industries with the highest rates of repeated-trauma disorders in 1996 were in the manufacturing sector. The average incidence rate for manufacturing was 144.0 cases per 10,000 workers.

These data are a product of the BLS Safety and Health Statistics Program. Additional information is available from Occupational Injuries and Illnesses: Counts, Rates, and Characteristics, 1996 (BLS Bulletin 2512). Examples of disorders associated with repeated trauma are conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome, noise-induced hearing loss, and bursitis.