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Date: Tuesday, Feb. 10, 1998 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Sandra Smith, NCHS(301)436-7551, Fred Blosser, NIOSH(202) 260-8519
"For the first time from any source, this report compiles the wide-ranging national data that are the most critical for assessing the complex relationship between employment and women's health in our society," said HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala. "At a time when more women are in the U.S. labor force than ever before, these statistics provide an important baseline for learning more about the needs of working women and opportunities to improve their health."
Since 1950 the labor force participation rate has increased at least 170 percent, so that today more than one-half of adult women work. During that period, women as a proportion of the labor force doubled from 1 in 4 to nearly one-half of today's workers. This report describes the sociodemographics, household characteristics, and health of women according to workforce status and job conditions, with comparative data for men.
Highlights of the report show:
Overall, women die from workrelated injuries at a substantially lower rate than men. Industries with highest fatality rates are the same for both men and women: mining, agriculture, construction, and transportation. The number of workplace homicides is higher among men than women, but proportionately they are greater among women, accounting for almost half of women's jobrelated fatalities.
For both women and men, job-related injuries most frequently affected the back. Among the 9 million working women who had back pain, about one-third attributed their back pain to work-related activities or injuries. More than half of the women employed in service or blue collar occupations and almost half of the working black women attributed their back pain to work.
Regarding health education in the workplace:
The report includes chapters on: workplace characteristics; health effects attributed to work--such as work injuries, illnesses, and fatalities; health status as it affects work; knowledge of health risks and behaviors, and worksite health promotion programs, and health-related employee benefits.
The report was produced by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in HHS, and the Women's Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor, with support from the CDC Office of Women's Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HHS. It also includes data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.
"While the report does not present information on causal factors which could explain the patterns in the data, it does provide a comprehensive, time-saving resource for additional studies to explain the patterns in such specific areas as workplace safety and health, health insurance, health promotion, and other key issues," said NCHS Director Edward J. Sondik, Ph.D.
"This report provides essential data for forward-looking research on the factors that put women uniquely at risk for injury and illness on the job," said NIOSH Director Linda Rosenstock, M.D., M.P.H. "This information is particularly important given the rapidly changing nature of work and the workplace in our global economy, and the vital role of working women in this changing landscape."
Copies of the report are available on the NCHS Home Page at www.cdc.gov/nchswww/ and from NIOSH by calling the NIOSH toll-free information number, 1-800-35-NIOSH (1-800-356-4674).