In This Chapter

Chapter 9.
Occupational Safety and Health Statistics

Part I. Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

Background
The current BLS survey of occupational injuries and illnesses evolved from annual BLS surveys first conducted in the 1940s, when injury recordkeeping standards became sufficiently uniform to permit the collection of nationwide work injury data. Spanning three decades, those nationwide surveys proved useful in measuring and monitoring injury frequency and severity, but they had two major limits. First, the survey data were compiled from and represented only employers who volunteered to record and report work injuries. Second, work injuries were limited to those resulting in death, permanent impairment, or temporary disability, defined as unable to perform regular job duties beyond the day of injury. Thus, survey estimates excluded, by definition, numerous cases that required medical treatment (beyond first aid) or restricted work duties but not lost worktime.

These and other limitations were addressed in a landmark piece of safety legislation passed by the Congress: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. The 1970 act and its implementing regulations require that most private industry employers regularly maintain records (logs) and prepare reports on work-related injuries and illnesses, which include all disabling, serious, or significant injuries and illnesses, whether or not involving time away from work.5

Clearly, the 1970 act called for a wider statistical net to gather work injury and illness data and to measure their numbers and incidence rates. The current survey, with minor modifications, still meets the basic requirements of the 1970 act for counts and rates covering a broad spectrum of work injuries and illnesses in various work settings. Beginning with calendar 1992, moreover, the survey collects information on the characteristics of the most serious of its nonfatal cases—those involving lost worktime—and the traits of workers sustaining such injuries and illnesses.

Footnotes
5 See section 24(a) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-596).

Next: Survey Definitions