Time for a New Approach
- By Jerry Laws
- Feb 01, 2005
IN the end, the biggest root causes for injuries may be inattention and
fatigue. This realization is monumental: It means behavior-based safety is truly
valuable, hours of service rules are warranted for many industries (not just
transportation), and safety in America will not be solved unless it is addressed
holistically--with as much attention paid to off-the-job human factors as to
contaminants, PPE, training, engineering controls, and other on-site
elements.
These thoughts came to me as I read the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics'
first report on the time of lost-workday injuries and illnesses for the
10 occupations with the most lost-time cases. Issued in December 2004, the
report analyzed 2002 data from the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and
Illnesses. This time analysis was possible because 2002 is the first year in
which OSHA's recordkeeping rule changes made time of event, day of week, and
number of hours worked prior to incident data available, BLS said.
The report's numbers are extremely interesting. Of the 1.1 million lost-workday cases in
2002 where data was available on the time of the incident, about half occurred
right out of the chute, during the first four hours on the job. While cases were
fairly evenly distributed on weekdays (more happened on Monday than on any other
day for most of the 10 occupations, by the way), 12.8 percent of all cases
occurred on Saturday and Sunday, a number I consider surprisingly high.
But look at the report's breakdown of median days away from work for
recuperation according to hours worked before the injury or illness occurred.
Across the board--from incidents before a shift even began, all the way up to
almost 14 hours worked--median days away were 6 or 7. Then comes this
spike:
|
Hours Worked |
Number of Incidents |
Percent of All Incidents |
Median Days |
|
14 hours to less than 15 hours |
4,000 |
0.4 % |
12 |
|
15 hours to less than 16 hours |
4,700 |
0.4 % |
11 |
|
16 hours to less than 17 hours |
2,800 |
0.3 % |
10 |
That is a snapshot of fatigue. While it caused a small fraction of total
cases, they were the most severe in terms of costs to the employer and the
injured worker. Both of the occupations where overnight or extended shifts are
routine--1) truck drivers and 2) nursing aides, orderlies, and
attendants--incurred 21 percent of their lost-time incidents between midnight
and 8 a.m.
This column appears in the February 2005 issue of Occupational Health
& Safety.
This article originally appeared in the February 2005 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
About the Author
Jerry Laws is Editor of Occupational Health & Safety magazine, which is owned by 1105 Media Inc.