Identifying High-Risk
Small Business
Industries
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National Institute for Occupational Safety and HealthDHHS (NIOSH) Publication Number 99-107
The PDF version is available as 99-107.html (155 pages, 761K)The United States has a long, proud tradition of entrepreneurship. Small businesses in particular are a vital component of our economy and provide employment for more than half the workers in American industry. Often, occupational safety and health issues are only one of a multitude of concerns with which a small business owner must contend. Promoting occupational safety and health through appropriate prevention programs is often a difficult task for small business because of the dispersion of worksites, the variability of work settings, and the small number of workers who can be reached at any one worksite.
As a result, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has prepared this report to characterize the risk of occupational injury, illness, and fatality in industries composed mostly of small business establishments. Identifying these risks will provide essential information to practitioners in occupational safety and health, the small business community (owners, managers, and employees), labor officials, trade associations, insurers, product suppliers, local and State agencies, and others involved with small business. This document will be of special interest to researchers in occupational safety and health as a first step toward identifying the underlying causes of injuries and illnesses in small business industries and designing effective and appropriate prevention strategies for a hard-to-reach target audience.
More than half of the U.S. workforce is employed in business establishments with fewer than 100 employees. Prevention of occupational illness and injury is often difficult in these small business establishments because they have few safety and health resources, cannot usually hire staff devoted to safety and health activities, and often lack the ability to identify occupational hazards and conduct surveillance. This investigation was conducted to identify high-risk small business industries from national data on occupational injury, illness, and fatality. Both the total number of cases and incidence rates were considered. Small business industries were identified as those with standard industrial classification (SIC) codes in which at least 80% of the employees work in business establishments with fewer than 100 employees.
In this report, 253 small business industries were identified with data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the years 19941995. These industries represent nearly 4 million establishments and more than 30 million employeesroughly one-third of all employees in private industry. Occupational injury, illness, and fatality data were available for 105 of these industries. From the data for these industries, the top 25% (n=26) were ranked according to their injury, illness, and fatality experience. A combined risk index (i.e., the combined risk of occupational injury, illness, and fatality) was also used to rank these small business industries. The highest-ranked small business industries include Logging (SIC 241); Cut Stone and Stone Products (SIC 328); Trucking Terminal Facilities (SIC 423); Roofing, Siding, and Sheet Metal Work (SIC 176); Camps and Recreational Vehicle Parks (SIC 703); Landscape and Horticultural Services (SIC 708); Animal and Marine Fats and Oils (SIC 2077); Concrete, Gypsum, and Plastic Products (SIC 327); and Taxicabs (SIC 412). This information can be used by the small business community, labor officials, occupational safety and health practitioners and agencies, and others to target prevention activities to small business industries with the greatest need.
More than half (56%) of the U.S. workforce in private industry is employed in business establishments with fewer than 100 employees [Bureau of the Census 1997; Wiatrowski 1994]. Of the approximately 6.5 million private industry establishments operating in the United States, more than 6.3 million (98%) employ fewer than 100 employees, and more than 5.6 million (87%) employ fewer than 20 employees. Prevention of occupational illness and injury is often difficult in these establishments because small businesses generally have few safety and health resources, cannot usually hire staff devoted to safety and health activities, and often lack the ability to identify occupational hazards and conduct surveillance [Wiatrowski 1994; Pedersen and Sieber 1988]. Given limited Federal, State, and local resources available in the United States for occupational safety and health, public and occupational health practitioners must focus prevention activities on industries that have the greatest need. Identifying and understanding the risks associated with such industries will also prove useful to employers, employees, and insurers involved in small business. Therefore, this report provides information about high-risk small business industries identified from national data sources. Included are both the total number of cases and incidence rates (IRs) of occupational injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in small business industries.
For this report, small business industries were identified as those with standard industrial classification (SIC) codes in which at least 80% of the employees work in business establishments with fewer than 100 employees.
According to County Business Patterns 1994* [Bureau of the Census 1996], 253 industries were identified as meeting the criterion for small business industries. The 253 small business industries include
Of the 150 small business industries identified at the four-digit SIC level, 96 existed within a broader (three-digit) small business industry.
Occupational injury and illness data by SIC code for small business industries were obtained from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, 1995 [BLS 1997c] (the SOII). Information about fatal occupational injuries was derived from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1994 [BLS 1995] (the CFOI). The small business industries identified in this study include nearly 4 million establishments and more than 30 million employeesroughly one-third of all employees in private industry. Small business industries accounted for more than 1.5 million nonfatal occupational injury cases and 56,000 illness cases in 1995 (total cases, with and without lost workdays), and 1,924 fatal occupational injuries (including 356 self-employed workers) in 1994. Detailed occupational injury, illness, and fatality data were available for 105 of the 253 identified small business industries; that is, data were not available for most of the four-digit SIC codes because the 1995 SOII [BLS 1997c] is designed to generate industry estimates at this level only for manufacturing industries, and at the three-digit level for nonmanufactur- ing industries.
The 105 small business industries with available data were ranked according to the total number of cases and IRs for occupational nonfatal injuries, illnesses, lost workdays, and fatal injuries. They were also ranked by a combined risk index for each industry. This combined risk index was the total of the scores for the rankings of the IRs for nonfatal occupational injuries, occupational illnesses, and fatal occupational injuries. For each small business industry, the total number of cases and IRs for occupational illnesses, injuries, and fatalities reflect the extent and severity of the risk. However, the number of illnesses, injuries, or fatalities in a particular small business industry reflects both the risk associated with that industry and the number of workers in the industry.
The highest IRs (per 100 full-time employees) for nonfatal injuries occurred in the following industries:
IR
By comparison, the average IR for nonfatal injuries in all private industry was 7.5 per 100 full-time employees. All of the top 26 small business industries (the top 25%) exceeded this rate. The largest numbers of nonfatal injuries occurred among employees in the following industries:
Number
The highest-ranking small business industries by occupational illness IR (per 100 full-time workers) included employees involved with the following industries:
IR
By comparison, the average illness IR for all private industry was 0.6 per 100 full-time employees. The highest numbers of illness cases occurred among workers in the following small business industries:
Number
Fatal occupational injury cases were examined as a measure of the most severe consequences of exposure to occupational hazards. For fatal occupational injuries, the highest IRs (per 100,000 full-time workers) occurred among employees involved with the following small business industries:
IR
These rates were more than 10 times the average fatal occupational injury rate for all private industry (4.8 deaths per 100,000 workers), and all small business industries in the top quartile exceeded this rate. The greatest numbers of fatalities occurred among the following small business industries:
Number
The leading causes of fatal occupational injuries among various small business industries were as follows:
Number of small business
industries in which it
Cause of fatal injury is a leading cause Comment
Transportation incidents.................26 This trend persists for
all private industry.
Assaults and violent acts................17 Primarily retail service
industries.
Contact with objects and
equipment..............................6 Construction, specialty
trades, logging, mining.
Falls.....................................6 Primarily construction
industries.
Exposure to harmful substances Manufacture of Wood
and environments.......................1 Containers (SIC244);
also associated with
deaths in 15 other small
business industries.
When morbidity and mortality measures are combined into a single index, the highest-risk small business industries include the following:
A brief discussion of each small business industry is included in the Appendix. The purpose of this discussion is to provide an understanding of the activities involved with each small business industry and possible factors that may contribute to the occupational injury and illness experience.
Introduction
Defining and Identifying Small Business
Small Business Industries and Related
Results
Discussion
Descriptions of SIC Codes
| BLS | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics |
| CFOI | Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries |
| hr | hour(s) |
| IR | incidence rate |
| MSHA | Mine Safety and Health Administration |
| NAICS | North American Industry Classification System |
| NEC | not elsewhere classified |
| NIOSH | National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health |
| NOES | National Occupational Exposure Survey |
| NSC | National Safety Council |
| OMB | Office of Management and Budget |
| OSHA | Occupational Safety and Health Administration |
| SAFE | Safety Actions for Europe |
| SBA | U.S. Small Business Administration |
| SIC | Standard Industrial Classification |
| SOII | Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses |
This document was prepared by Thomas J. Lentz (NIOSH, Education and Information Division), Andrea H. Okun (NIOSH, Deputy Director of the Education and Information Division), Paul A. Schulte (NIOSH, Director of the Education and Information Division), and Leslie T. Stayner (NIOSH, Education and Information Division, Risk Evaluation Branch Chief). The authors are grateful to all who contributed timely and relevant information to this investigation, in particular Guy Toscano (Bureau of Labor Statistics), Elyce Biddle (NIOSH, Division of Safety Research), Carol Burnett (NIOSH, Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies), and Robert Mason (NIOSH, Education and Information Division). For their critical reviews and comments, the following technical advisers are gratefully acknowledged: Lynn Jenkins (NIOSH, Office of the Director), Marie Haring Sweeney (NIOSH, Education and Information Division, Document Development, Branch Chief), Ralph Zumwalde (NIOSH, Education and Information Division), Lee Sanderson (NIOSH, Office of the Director), Kitty Townsend (NIOSH, Division of Safety Research), Leela Murthy (NIOSH, Education and Information Division), and Randy Young (NIOSH, Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations and Field Studies). The authors also wish to thank Vanessa Becks, Susan Feldmann, Anne Hamilton, Susan Kaelin, and Jane Weber (all of NIOSH, Education and Information Division) for their editorial support and contributions to the design and layout of this document.
Also important to the development of this document were the external reviews and comments provided by the following: Kathy Condit and Marthe Kent (Occupational Safety and Health Administration); Letitia Davis (Massachusetts Department of Public Health); J. Paul Leigh (San Jose State University); Thomas M. Sullivan (National Federation of Independent Business); Ted R. Miller (National Public Services Research Institute); Earl S. Pollack (Center to Protect Workers Rights); Sara Rice (Small Business Administration); Steve C. Smith (California Department of Industrial Relations); William L. Weber (Bureau of Labor Statistics); and Paul T. Zeisset (Bureau of the Census).
