February 06, 2001 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)
Insect bites, stings cause thousands of workplace injuries
Insects and arachnids inflicted 36,100 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses involving time away from work in the 1992-97 period. This was almost half of the total number of animal-related workplace injuries and illnesses.
[Chart data—TXT]
Outdoor workers, such as laborers, truck drivers, groundskeepers, and farm workers, were among the workers most frequently victims of nonfatal insect and arachnid injuries and illnesses. But so
were some indoor workers, including machine operators, janitors, nurses aides and orderlies, and even cashiers.
Dogs were involved in 13,800 nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses, or 18 percent of the total animal-related cases involving days away from work. Three quarters of this number were a result of attacks, while nearly all of the rest were from overexertion while lifting heavy dogs.
These data are from the BLS Survey of
Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Arachnids include spiders,
scorpions, and ticks. Read more in "Are Animals Occupational
Hazards?" (PDF 86K),
by Dino Drudi, Compensation and
Working Conditions, Fall 2000.
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 »