Facts About Worker Health & Safety

This year marks the 31th anniversary of the enactment of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The Act—which guarantees every American worker a safe and healthful working environment—created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to set and enforce standards and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to conduct research and investigations.

Since 1970, workplace safety and health conditions have improved. More than 254,270 workers can now say that their lives have been saved since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Unfortunately, too many workers remain at risk.

MILLIONS OF WORKERS ARE KILLED, INJURED OR DISEASED ON THE JOB EACH YEAR.

• In 2000, 5.7 million workers were injured, more than 5,900 killed by traumatic injuries and an estimated 50,000 - 60,000 died from occupational diseases.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 5,915 workplace deaths due to traumatic injuries in 2000, a slight decline from the number of deaths in 1999, when 6,023 workplace deaths were reported. Alaska again led the country with the highest fatality rate (19.21/100,000); the lowest state fatality rate (1.5/100,000) was found in Rhode Island. These statistics do not include deaths from occupational diseases, which claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year.
• Fatal work injuries to men were down nearly three percent, while fatalities to women increased slightly in 2000. Self employed workers, who make up only seven percent of the work force, accounted for 20 percent of the fatality total.
• While the number of fatal work injuries among white and black workers were lower in 2000, fatal injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers increased sharply, from 729 in 1999 to 815 in 2000.
• On average, 16 workers were fatally injured each day during 2000. There were 214 multiple-fatality incidents, which resulted in 531 job-related deaths.
• In 2000, BLS reported 2.8 million injuries that resulted in restricted activity or lost-time; 1.7 million of these injuries resulted in at least one lost-work day.
• In 1999 , BLS reported more than 582,000 serious musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). These cases made up 34.2 percent of all lost-workday injuries, making them the nation's leading job safety problem. In 1999, serious cases of carpal tunnel syndrome increased to 27,900 reported cases from 26,300 cases reported in 1998. However, these numbers understate the true magnitude of the problem. Research and experience shows that many MSDs go unreported; OSHA has estimated that for every reported MSD, another MSD goes unreported. In addition, the BLS numbers do not include the many ergonomic injuries that occur among state and local workers.

OVER THE YEARS, WORKPLACE SAFETY HAS IMPROVED

• According to the National Safety Council and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job fatality rate has been cut by 76 percent since 1970.
• Injury rates have also fallen. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 11 injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in 1973; by 2000, the rate was 6.1 per 100 workers—a decrease of 45 percent.
• Declines in workplace fatalities and injuries have been much greater in those industries where OSHA has targeted its standards and enforcement activities. In manufacturing, the fatality rate has declined by 63 percent and the injury rate by 41 percent since the passage of OSHA. Similarly, in construction, the fatality rate has declined by 81 percent and the injury rate by 58 percent.
• In those sectors where OSHA has focused limited attention, injury rates have changed very little. For example, in the service sector, the injury rate in 1973 was 6.2 per 100 workers; in 2000, it was 4.9.
• Throughout the years, OSHA standards have significantly reduced worker exposure to serious hazards and prevented unnecessary injuries, illnesses and deaths.
• Moreover, many OSHA standards have saved employers money and increased productivity. Compliance with OSHA's vinyl chloride standard led to improvements in the production process, increased profits and lowered worker exposures.

WORKERS NEED MORE SAFETY AND HEALTH PROTECTION

• Although injury and fatality rates are falling, too many workers are being killed and injured on the job. In 2,000, 5,915 workers died from traumatic injuries, and more than 50,000 died from occupational diseases. More than 5.7 million workers were injured on the job.
• On an average day, 153 workers lose their lives as a result of workplace injuries and illnesses, and another 15,600 are injured. That's one workplace death or injury every five seconds.
• Millions of workers still lack OSHA protection— more than 8.39 million state and local public employees are not covered by OSHA. Millions of workers in the transportation industry do not benefit from OSHA protections.
• For many serious hazards, standards are of out of date or non-existent. Since OSHA was enacted, comprehensive standards have only been issued for 29 toxic chemicals. Permissible exposure limits for toxic chemicals adopted in 1971 have never been successfully updated. Ergonomic hazards, the major source of workplace injury and illness, still have no standard, since OSHA's November 2000 ergonomics regulation was repealed by Congress and President Bush.
• Other major safety and health concerns facing workers today include issues of work organization such as increased hours of work, intensification of work due to downsizing, increased paced of work and other changes in technologies and work processes. Many of these changes have been associated with repetitive strain injuries, stress, workplace violence and even fatalities.
• Thousands of workers are retaliated against by their employers each year for raising job safety concerns or reporting injuries, fired or harassed simply because they want a safe place to work. OSHA whistle-blower and anti-retaliation provisions are too weak to provide any real protection to workers who try to exercise their legal rights.
• At the workplace the move toward behavior-based safety and incentive programs is particularly alarming. Rather than examining how core work processes affect health and safety, behavior-based safety programs claim that an overwhelming majority of job injuries and illnesses are the result of the unsafe acts of workers themselves. Behavior-based safety programs attempt to place the responsibility for a safe workplace squarely on the backs of workers, rather than addressing workplace hazards.
  And since the terrorist attacks on September 11, a whole new set of workplace safety and security issues have emerged.
• OSHA is a small agency that does not have the funding or staff to oversee the safety and health of 110 million workers in 7.6 million workplaces under its jurisdiction. Federal OSHA only has about 860 safety and health inspectors and can inspect workplaces, on average, once every 119 years.
  OSHA's current budget (FY 2002) of $443.6 million amounts to $3.66 per covered worker.

BUSINESS OPPOSITION TO SAFETY AND HEALTH PROTECTIONS HAS INCREASED

• Employer groups are fighting each and every attempt by OSHA to regulate any hazard, no matter how serious a problem it is for workers. Even negotiated rulemakings are being challenged in court.
• It is very clear that many in the business community and anti-worker forces in Congress have a strong anti-regulatory ideology that allows no room for common sense regulation to protect workers and their communities.
  In an extreme action, in response to employer demands, the Republican-controlled Congress and President Bush repealed OSHA's November 2000 ergonomic standard, which would have prevented these crippling injuries. While the Administration made promises that if the standard were repealed, it would pursue a “comprehensive approach” to ergonomics, in the year since the ergonomics standard was repealed, the Bush Administration has done nothing to protect workers from ergonomic hazards. Workers are left with no protection from the biggest job safety hazard in America.
• The Bush Administration has demonstrated clearly that it has no interest in worker safety and health. In just a year's time, the Bush Administration has attacked the ergonomics standard, and gone back on its promise to address the issue. It issued a one-year stay on provisions of the new record keeping rule to prevent ergonomic injuries from being recorded. The Bush regulatory agenda makes clear that it is abandoning or delaying action on many important worker protection measures by withdrawing and halting action on dozens of standards. The budgets proposed by President Bush cut funding for the agencies involved in worker safety and health. In 2001, the Administration withdrew funding for 19 long-term training grants. In a direct slap in the face to workers, the President nominated one of the industry's anti-ergonomic leaders, Eugene Scalia, as the Labor Department's top lawyer, clearly demonstrating his commitment to big business, rather than workers.

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