Objective: To estimate the annual incidence, the mortality, and the direct and indirect costs associated with occupational injuries and illnesses in the United States in 1992. Design: Aggregation and analysis of national and large regional data sets collected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Council on Compensation Insurance, the National Center for Health Statistics, the Health Care Financing Administration, and other governmental bureaus and private firms. Methods: To assess incidence of and mortality from occupational injuries and illnesses, we reviewed data from national surveys and applied an attributable risk proportion method. To assess costs, we used the human capital method that decomposes costs into direct categories such as medical and insurance administration expenses as well as indirect categories such as lost earnings, lost home production, and lost fringe benefits. Some cost estimates were drawn from the literature while others were generated within this study. Total costs were calculated by multiplying average costs by the number of injuries and illnesses in each diagnostic category. Results: Approximately 6500 job-related deaths from injury, 13.2 million nonfatal injuries, 60 300 deaths from disease, and 862 200 illnesses are estimated to occur annually in the civilian American workforce. The total direct ($65 billion) plus indirect ($106 billion) costs were estimated to be $171 billion. Injuries cost $145 billion and illnesses $26 billion. These estimates are likely to be low, because they ignore costs associated with pain and suffering as well as those of within-home care provided by family members, and because the numbers of occupational injuries and illnesses are likely to be undercounted. Conclusions: The costs of occupational injuries and illnesses are high, in sharp contrast to the limited public attention and societal resources devoted to their prevention and amelioration. Occupational injuries and illnesses are an insufficiently appreciated contributor to the total burden of health care costs in the United States. Arch Intern Med. 1997;157:1557-1568

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articlepdf/623587/archinte_157_14_006.pdf

Occupational Injury and Illness in the United States: Estimates of Costs, Morbidity, and Mortality

A keyboard for use with a standard personal computer includes an alphanumeric key array having a plurality of alphanumeric keys arranged in a generally orthogonal, concave array. A home row of keys defines a reference position for the fingers of the operator. A liner array of function keys is provided and positioned above the reference position and tilted toward the operator. A generally orthogonal array of auxiliary keys is also positioned above the reference position. The array of auxiliary keys is rotated with respect to the reference position to accommodate the natural angle of the thumb of the operator to the index finger. A palm rest is provided for receiving the palm of the operator while the operator is manipulating the plurality of alphanumeric keys. The palm rest is positioned above the reference position defined by the home row so that during operation of the alphanumeric keys, the fingers of the operator extend downward from the palm rest in a natural curved manner.

Ergonomic keyboard apparatus

Intracarpal canal pressures: the role of finger, hand, wrist and forearm position.

OBJECTIVE: This study was conducted to estimate the costs of job-related injuries in agriculture in the United States for 1992. METHODS: The authors reviewed data from national surveys to assess the incidence of fatal and non-fatal farm injuries. Numerical adjustments were made for weaknesses in the most reliable data sets. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Annual Survey estimate of non-fatal injuries is adjusted upward by a factor of 4.7 to reflect the BLS undercount of farm injuries. To assess costs, the authors used the human capital method that allocates costs to direct categories such as medical expenses, as well as indirect categories such as lost earnings, lost home production, and lost fringe benefits. Cost data were drawn from the Health Care Financing Administration and the National Council on Compensation Insurance. RESULTS: Eight hundred forty-one (841) deaths and 512,539 non-fatal injuries are estimated for 1992. The non-fatal injuries include 281,896 that led to at least one full day of work loss. Agricultural occupational injuries cost an estimated $4.57 billion (range $3.14 billion to $13.99 billion) in 1992. On a per person basis, farming contributes roughly 30% more than the national average to occupational injury costs. Direct costs are estimated to be $1.66 billion and indirect costs, $2.93 billion. CONCLUSIONS: The costs of farm injuries are on a par with the costs of hepatitis C. This high cost is in sharp contrast to the limited public attention and economic resources devoted to prevention and amelioration of farm injuries. Agricultural occupational injuries are an underappreciated contributor to the overall national burden of health and medical costs. Language: en

Costs of occupational injuries in agriculture.

DISCLAIMER The use of company or product name(s) is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Toxicological profiles are revised and republished as necessary, but no less than once every three years. For information regarding the update status of previously released profiles, contact ATSDR at: vi ASBESTOS *Legislative Background The toxicological profiles are developed in response to the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986 (Public law 99-499) which amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund). This public law directed ATSDR to prepared toxicological profiles for hazardous substances most commonly found at facilities on the CERCLA National Priorities List and that pose the most significant potential threat to human health, as determined by ATSDR and the EPA. The availability of the revised priority Administrator of ATSDR to prepare a toxicological profile for each substance on the list. The Toxicological Profile for asbestos reflects a comprehensive and extensive evaluation, summary, and interpretation of available toxicologic and epidemiologic information on asbestos. Health care providers treating patients potentially exposed to asbestos will find the following information helpful for fast answers to often-asked questions. Chapter 1: Public Health Statement: The Public Health Statement can be a useful tool for educating patients about possible exposure to a hazardous substance. It explains a substance's relevant toxicologic properties in a nontechnical, question-and-answer format, and it includes a review of the general health effects observed following exposure. assesses the significance of toxicity data to human health. Chapter 3: Health Effects: Specific health effects of asbestos are reported by type of health effect (death, systemic, immunologic, reproductive), by route of exposure, and by length of exposure (acute, intermediate, and chronic). In addition, both human and animal studies are reported in this section.

/pdf/toxicological-profile-for-asbestos-19hc131lef.pdf

Toxicological profile for asbestos

We examined deaths due to injury on the job reported from three readily accessible data sources in California for a 1-year period. Of 682 deaths identified as of February 1990 as having occurred on the job in 1983, county coroners identified 607 (89.0%), workers' compensation records identified 294 (43.1%), and the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigated 141 (20.7%). Most fatal injuries at work resulted from events that are not covered by current California Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards: transportation vehicle accidents and homicides. Demographic patterns suggest that fatal injuries on the job are nonrandom events, which may be prevented by additions to existing standards or increased enforcement of workplace safety standards and by efforts to target groups at highest risk. Improved surveillance of fatal occupational injuries will require changes in existing reporting mechanisms, similar to those proposed by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fatal injuries at work in California.

This study utilizes a variable geometry keyboard to analyze the optimal configuration for a split QWERTY-type keyboard. The measured criteria were muscle activity as measured by EMG and reported op...

Antonio Daponte

Papers

Fatal injuries at work in California.

Analysis of the Tony!™ Variable Geometry VDT Keyboard:

Asbestos‐Related Disease in Custodial and Building Maintenance Workers from a Large Municipal School District

Fatal occupational injury and energy exchange: A replication of Kriebel's model