April 02, 2002 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
About 1 in 5 toxicology reports positive in occupational fatalities
The presence of drugs or alcohol, or both, was revealed in 19 percent of all available toxicology reports on workers fatally injured in 1998.
![Substances identified in positive toxicology reports for work-related fatalities, 1998](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20120925080648im_/http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/images/2002/apr/wk1/art02.gif)
[Chart data—TXT]
Alcohol was the substance found most often in decedents with positive toxicology reports. Tetrahydrocannibol, the primary psychoactive agent in marijuana, was next most frequently found. Opiates and cocaine were third and fourth, with other substances less frequently reported.
About 1 in 6 of the positive toxicology reports found two or more substances in the fatally injured worker.
These data are from the Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries. Thirty-nine States made a total of 3,055
toxicology reports available for study; 593 showed the presence of alcohol
or drugs in deceased workers. To find out more, see the article, "Work-related
Fatal Injuries in 1998" (PDF 182K), by William Weber and Cherron Cox, in Compensation
and Working Conditions, Spring 2001.
Of interest
Spotlight on Statistics: National Hispanic Heritage Month
In this Spotlight, we take a look at the Hispanic labor force—including labor force participation, employment and unemployment, educational attainment, geographic location, country of birth, earnings, consumer expenditures, time use, workplace injuries, and employment projections.
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Read more »