2023 NSC Safety Congress & Expo Explores Occupational Injury Trends
Speaker Ken Kolosh shared the latest data on occupational injuries and fatalities.
- By Robert Yaniz Jr.
- Oct 23, 2023
The 2023 NSC Safety Congress & Expo is in full swing, giving attendees rare hands-on access to the latest developments and leading professionals throughout workplace safety. One notable session on the agenda, "Injury Facts: Data You Can Count On," took place in the Learning Lab (Booth #5433) on the first day of the event, Monday, Oct. 23, and certainly left an impression.
Ken Kolosh, the manager of statistics at the National Safety Council (NSC) led the session as the primary speaker, which presented the latest occupational injury and fatality data courtesy of the NSC’s Injury Facts website. While acknowledging the 2020 stats were skewed by the pandemic, Kolosh pointed out there is still some eye-opening data to be gleaned from the 2021 batch.
Among the biggest changes in 2021 were a 17 percent increase in poisoning deaths, including drug overdoses. Use of synthetic opioids, such as Fentanyl, in particular rose 26 percent. Of course, the opioid crisis has been plaguing workplace safety more in the past few years, a fact Kolosh acknowledged.
“Drug overdoses just don’t happen outside of work anymore,” Kolosh said. “They’re increasingly happening in the workplace.”
Following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of preventable work deaths rebounded back up. Kolosh noted a 6 percent increase overall and unveiled a number of other statistics, including the top death rates by industry. Coming in first place was “Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting,” followed by “Mining” and “Transportation and warehousing.”
Kolosh also touched on the changes ahead in the Nov. 8, 2023 update from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which will now be tracking case data involving job transfer or restriction. Previously, the focus was injury data calculated by assessing an employee’s time away from work.
Closing the session, Kolosh emphasized how attendees can navigate the Injury Facts website to find the data they need, including detailed overviews of trending data as well as interactive charts and tables.
About the Author
Robert Yaniz Jr. is the Content Editor of Occupational Health & Safety.