The Economic Burden of Occupational Fatal Injuries to Civilian Workers in the United States Based on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1992-2002

Download or read book The Economic Burden of Occupational Fatal Injuries to Civilian Workers in the United States Based on the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 1992-2002 written by Department of Health and Human Services and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-16 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The national burden imposed by occupational injury and illness encompasses numerous areas of personal and public life: It deeply affects personal well-being, it affects relationships between workers, their families, and their communities, and it affects the institutions and governing bodies of this country. This burden includes a component that is vital to overall function and health at the national, local, and personal level—the economic component of loss. To more completely understand the burden imposed by injury and illness in the workplace, it is necessary to further develop measures of the economic component of loss. This document attempts to add an economic dimension to existing research efforts addressing the incidence and prevalence measures of loss associated with fatal occupational injury. This research effort is of long standing within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and has been previously reported in such documents as The Cost of Fatal Injuries to Civilian Workers in the United States, 1992–2001, which is based on surveillance conducted within NIOSH and which draws on counts and information from the vital statistic reporting systems across the Nation. The current document builds on this research and incorporates new information and counts from current and revised methods regarding fatal occupational injury, which are described in greater detail within the text of this document. The findings are compelling: Over the period studied, 1992–2002, the costs from these premature deaths exceeded $53 billion, an amount greater than the reportable gross domestic product for some States. These findings inform national efforts to reduce this severe toll on our nation's workers, institutions, communities, and the nation itself. Researchers and concerned parties within the occupational and public health professions, academics, organizations focusing on workplace safety, labor unions, and the business community have all proven to be willing and avid users of this data and have used this research to continue their efforts, in concert with continuing NIOSH research efforts, to reduce the great toll that fatal occupational injuries impose on our workers, workplaces, and nation.