Occhealth Bulletin
03 September 2010
Non-fatal falls in the construction industry
Category: Reviews
Construction is a dangerous industry. As many as 1 in 5 occupational fatalities occur despite the fact that only 8% of the US workforce is employed in the industry. The construction industry also accounts for the largest numbers of non-fatal injuries each year. It is estimated that falls account for one third of fatalities and, in 2005, the incidence of non-fatal injuries, as a result of falls, was calculated to be 55.4 per 10,000 full-time equivalents (FTE). This has a huge impact on the economy. According to NIOSH, the total cost of falls resulting in fatal injuries in construction amount to $280 million a year.
A recent study by Shishlov and co-workers aimed to address a growing concern that current national injury surveillance systems, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), “underestimates the true injury burden due to under-reporting of injuries and the design of the survey”. The researchers aimed to determine national estimates of construction industry workers presenting to US Emergency Departments with non-fatal fall injuries during 1998 to 2005.
The researchers analyzed data from the NIOSH National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS-Work) based on information collected from 67 US hospitals with 24-hour emergency departments (EDs). They determined that 555,700 construction workers presented to EDs with non-fatal injuries resulting from falls during 1998-2005. Falls accounted for a third of the injuries presented to hospitals by construction workers during the period and represented 17% of the total injuries seen. The most common events leading to falls, amounting to 70% of the injuries reported, included falls to lower levels from ladders, scaffolding and roofs.
Consistent with other researchers, the authors of this study determined that younger workers are more likely to experience falls but older workers are more likely to incur serious injuries that warrant hospital admission or transfer to another center. This maybe due to older workers often being limited in terms of physical functioning (musculoskeletal conditions) contributing to higher occupational morbidity.
Shishlov and co-workers observed that fall-related injury rates were steady across the study period compared with a steady decrease reported over the same period by SOII data. The researchers argued that discrepancies may exist due to under-reporting as “aggregate reports in SOII by type of injury (such as fall, contact, etc) are limited to cases resulting in days away from work”. Shishlov’s study documented all injuries reported to emergency departments (90% of which did not require hospital admission) and it was therefore feasible that some construction workers did not require days away from work.
REFERENCE: Shishlov, KS., Schoenfisch, AL., Myers, DJ. and Lipscomb, HJ. (2010) Non-fatal construction industry fall-related injuries treated in US Emergency Departments, 1998-2005. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Published online.
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