Job Safety in ’96 Best Ever, Study Says

Signaling continuing improvement in on-the-job safety, the federal government said Wednesday that the rate of nonfatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace dropped in 1996 to the lowest level on record.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the rate of such mishaps declined to 7.4 cases for every 100 full-time workers, down from 8.1 in 1995. That marks the fourth straight year of such declines and the best job safety results since the federal government began keeping the figures in the early 1970s.

In private industry nationally, 6.2 million workplace injuries and illnesses were reported that forced employees to lose time from work or required them to receive medical treatment beyond first aid.

Contributing to the overall decline in mishaps was a decrease, for the second year in a row, in repeated-trauma disorders.

This broad category of ailments includes such problems as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and hearing loss stemming from repetitive motions, vibrations or pressures; its victims range from typists to meatpackers. The number of such injuries--which had skyrocketed through most of the 1980s and ‘90s, prompting California to adopt the nation’s first workplace ergonomics standard--declined by 9% in 1996 to 281,000.

Business and labor groups are divided over the reasons for the improving job safety results, a reflection of the politically charged atmosphere over regulatory efforts in the workplace. Anti-regulatory business groups have largely credited voluntary efforts by enlightened employers, along with job growth in less hazardous industries, for the improved results.

But Peg Seminario, director of the AFL-CIO’s department of occupational safety and health, noted that the greatest declines in repeated-trauma disorders came in industries such as auto assembly and meatpacking. She said ergonomic hazards in those industries “have received a great deal of attention” from government safety regulators, employers and unions.

Seminario also pointed out that injury and illness rates climbed in industries that have traditionally been among the most hazardous, including food-processing, textiles and some manufacturing fields.

The hospital and grocery store businesses also posted higher injury and illness rates.

The new report is the second of three assessments the BLS will issue on workplace mishaps in 1996. The first, issued in August, found that fatal accidents in 1996 dropped to the lowest level in at least five years. A major contributor to the decline was a reduction in workplace homicides.

The third study, due in April, will provide demographic characteristics of workers who suffered serious injuries and illnesses and will also give more details on the kinds of ailments suffered.