Fatal work injuries totaled 70 in 2010 for the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Sheila Watkins, the Bureau’s regional commissioner, noted that while the 2010 count is preliminary, the number of work-related fatalities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area increased by 3 from the 67 deaths recorded a year earlier. Still, the 2010 count was the second-lowest in the eight-year history of the series. (See table 1.) Fourteen homicides, 13 falls to a lower level, and 8 highway incidents made up half of the work-related fatalities in the Philadelphia area in 2010. (See chart 1 and table 2.) Final 2010 fatality data will be released in Spring 2012.

The Philadelphia area had the 5th-largest population nationally¹ and placed 6th in work-related fatalities among the 10 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States. (See chart 2.) The most populated area in the country—New York—had the highest number of workplace fatalities (145) in 2010. The smallest metropolitan area in this group—Boston—had the lowest fatality count with 32 deaths.

Workplace homicides in Philadelphia increased slightly from 13 in 2009 to 14 in 2010—the two lowest totals since the series began in 2003. (See table 3.) Homicides were the most frequent fatal occupational injury in 8 of the 10 largest metropolitan areas in 2010. Among those 10 areas, Philadelphia tied New York for the 3rd-highest share of fatal workplace homicides at 20 percent. Fatal falls to a lower level increased from 11 to 13 in 2010, and were the 2nd-most frequent cause of workplace deaths in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, responsible for 19 percent of local fatalities. Philadelphia tied Boston and Atlanta for the 2nd-highest share of fatal falls to a lower level out of the top 10 metropolitan areas. Nationwide, homicides and falls to a lower level each accounted for 11 percent of work-related fatalities.

Highway incidents in the Philadelphia metropolitan area accounted for eight work-related deaths in 2010—the lowest count since the series began in 2003. Highway incidents represented 11 percent of the fatal occupational injury total, the third-lowest share of fatalities among the eight metropolitan areas with publishable data in this category. These eight areas all had lower shares of occupational fatalities from highway incidents than the 21 percent recorded for the nation. Highway incidents were the most frequent fatal workplace event in the nation during 2010.

Additional key characteristics:

• Men accounted for 65, or 93 percent, of the work-related fatalities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area in 2010. Transportation incidents, which include highway, nonhighway, pedestrian, air, water, and rail, accounted for 20, or 31 percent, of these fatalities. Five women were fatally injured at work in the Philadelphia area; four of these fatalities were from assaults and violent acts. (See table 4.)
• In the Philadelphia area, 56 percent of those who died from a workplace injury were white non-Hispanics. Nationwide, this group accounted for 72 percent of work-related deaths.
• Workers 25-54 years old—the prime working age group—accounted for 47, or approximately two-thirds, of the work-related fatalities in the Philadelphia area in 2010; this was higher than the 60-percent share of worker deaths for this age group nationwide.
• Of the 70 occupational fatalities in the Philadelphia area, 84 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remaining workers were self-employed. Transportation incidents made up the largest number of deaths among wage and salary workers. Among the self-employed, 4 of the 11 fatalities were caused by assaults and violent acts.
• The construction sector accounted for the largest portion of the Philadelphia area’s fatal workplace injuries with 17 deaths, 11 of which resulted from falls. The transportation and warehousing sector followed with 14 fatalities, 9 of which were from transportation incidents. Together, these two industry sectors accounted for 44 percent of the area’s work-related fatalities.
• Transportation and material moving occupations had the highest number of on-the-job fatalities in the Philadelphia area with 19; heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers and light or delivery service truck drivers each accounted for 5 of the 19 fatalities. Workers in construction and extraction occupations had the 2nd-highest fatality count at 14, followed by management occupations at 9 and production occupations at 8.

Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries data are available on the BLS Internet site at www.bls.gov/iif. For personal assistance or further information on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries program, as well as other Bureau programs, contact the Mid-Atlantic Information Office at 215-597-3282 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET. Information on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and other programs and surveys are available on our Web site at www.bls.gov/ro3.

Footnotes

¹ Metropolitan area populations based on 2010 estimates from the Census Bureau: www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-01.pdf

Technical Note

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the BLS Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, compiles a count of all fatal work injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. The CFOI program uses diverse state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. This assures counts are as complete and accurate as possible.

For technical information about and definitions for the CFOI program, please go to the BLS Handbook of Methods on the BLS web site here: www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homch9_a1.htm.

Federal/State agency coverage. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries includes data for all fatal work injuries, whether the decedent was working in a job covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or other federal or state agencies or was outside the scope of regulatory coverage. Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions being used by each agency.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Pennsylvania Department of Health; New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services; Delaware Department of Labor; and Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that submitted source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation divisions); the Federal Railroad Administration; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; state vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; state departments of health, labor and industries, and workers' compensation agencies; state and local police departments; and state farm bureaus.

Area definitions. The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, dated February 2005. A detailed list of the geographic definitions is available at www.bls.gov/lau/lausmsa.htm.

The Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md. Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) consists of the Camden, N.J. Metropolitan Division (MD); the Philadelphia, Pa. Metropolitan Division (MD); and the Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J. Metropolitan Division (MD).

• The Camden, N.J. MD is composed of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester Counties in New Jersey.
• The Philadelphia, Pa. MD consists of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties in Pennsylvania.
• The Wilmington, Del.-Md.-N.J. MD consists of New Castle County in Delaware, Cecil County in Maryland, and Salem County in New Jersey.

Table 1. Fatal occupational injuries in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD by selected event groups, 2003-2010

Year	Total fatalities	Homicides		Falls to a lower level		Highway incidents
		Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
2003	78	18	23	13	17	11	14
2004	93	21	23	17	18	15	16
2005	77	15	19	16	21	12	16
2006	90	22	24	17	19	11	12
2007	93	27	29	14	15	12	13
2008	84	17	20	10	12	11	13
2009	67	13	19	11	16	11	16
2010	70	14	20	13	19	8	11
NOTE: Data for 2010 are preliminary. Data for 2009 are revised and final. Preliminary data issued August 19, 2010, reported a total of 66 fatal work injuries in the Philadelphia area for calendar year 2009. Since then, 1 additional job-related fatal injury was identified, bringing the total job-related fatal injury count for 2009 to 67.

Table 2. Fatal occupational injuries by selected event groups in the 10 largest metropolitan areas in 2010

Metropolitan Areas(1)	Total fatalities(2)	Homicides	Falls to a lower level	Highway incidents
United States(3)	4,547	506	515	968
New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa.	145	29	25	15
Chicago-Naperville-Joliet, Ill.-Ind.-Wis.	123	21	17	16
Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, Texas	82	14	8	12
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas	80	14	16	14
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.	74	13	12	6
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md.	70	14	13	8
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va.	64	11	8	10
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, Fla.	51	18	3	8
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.	43	15	8	-
Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H.	32	4	6	-
Footnotes: (1) Metropolitan areas used in this table are Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) based on definitions from the Office of Management and Budget Bulletin Number 05-02, February 2005. (2) Data are based on a preliminary total of 4,547 fatal work injuries for 2010. (3) Also includes fatalities occurring in nonmetropolitan areas.
Note: Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do not meet publication criteria.

Table 3. Fatal occupational injuries by event or exposure, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, 2009-2010

Event or exposure(1)	2009	2010
	Number		Percent
Total	67	70	100
Transportation incidents	20	20	29
Highway	11	8	11
Collision between vehicles, mobile equipment	7	5	7
Vehicle struck object on side of road	3	--	--
Nonhighway (farm, industrial premises)	--	3	4
Worker struck by a vehicle	8	7	10
Assaults and violent acts	17	19	27
Homicides	13	14	20
Shooting	12	10	14
Self-inflicted injuries	3	4	6
Contact with objects and equipment	9	6	9
Struck by object or equipment	4	--	--
Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects	5	4	6
Caught in running equipment or machinery	3	--	--
Falls	13	16	23
Fall to lower level	11	13	19
Fall from ladder	--	3	4
Fall from roof	--	7	10
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	6	9	13
Contact with electric current	--	7	10
Contact with overhead power lines	--	6	9
Exposure to caustic, noxious, or allergenic substances	4	--	--
Footnotes: (1) Based on the 2007 BLS Occupational Injury and Illness Classification Manual. Includes other events and exposures, such as bodily reaction, in addtion to those shown separately.
NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do meet publication criteria. Data for 2010 are preliminary. Data for 2009 are revised and final. Preliminary data issued August 19, 2010, reported a total of 66 fatal work injuries in the Philadelphia area for calendar year 2009. Since then, 1 additional job-related fatal injury was identified, bringing the total job-related fatal injury count for 2009 to 67. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with state and federal agencies, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

Table 4. Fatal occupational injuries by worker characteristics, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD, 2009-2010

Worker characteristics	2009	2010
	Number		Percent
Total	67	70	100
Employee Status
Wage and salary workers(1)	55	59	84
Self-employed(2)	12	11	16
Gender
Men	62	65	93
Women	5	5	7
Age(3)
20 to 24 years	3	4	6
25 to 34 years	11	12	17
35 to 44 years	13	15	21
45 to 54 years	19	20	29
55 to 64 years	12	9	13
65 years and over	8	9	13
Race or Ethnic Origin(4)
White, non-Hispanic	45	39	56
Black, non-Hispanic	11	14	20
Hispanic or Latino	7	12	17
Asian	4	4	6
Footnotes: (1) May include volunteers and workers receiving other types of compensation. (2) Includes self-employed workers, owners of unincorporated businesses and farms, paid and unpaid family workers, and may include some owners of incorporated businesses or members of partnerships. (3) Because there may have been no incidents reported for some ages or because the data do not meet publication criteria, information is not available for all age groups. In addition, some fatalities may have had insufficient information with which to determine the age of the decedents. (4) Persons identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race. The race categories shown exlcude Hispanic and Latino workers.
NOTE: Totals for major categories may include subcategories not shown separately. Dashes indicate no data reported or data that do meet publication criteria. Data for 2010 are preliminary. Data for 2009 are revised and final. Preliminary data issued August 19, 2010, reported a total of 66 fatal work injuries in the Philadelphia area for calendar year 2009. Since then, 1 additional job-related fatal injury was identified, bringing the total job-related fatal injury count for 2009 to 67. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in cooperation with state and federal agencies, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.