Explaining state-level variations in construction fatality rates.

Details

• Personal Author:
  Gray W ; Mendeloff J
• Description:
  Background: Recent studies have shown two-fold and greater long-term differences in fatality rates in the construction sector across states in the United States. Differences this large deserve to be studied to see whether they arise from factors that can be affected by public and private policy choices. We focus on states as the unit of analysis because several public policies that may affect fatalities are determined at the state level. These include workers' compensation (WC) programs and the enforcement of occupational safety and health standards (for the 21 states that operate their own enforcement program in the private sector). We focus on fatalities because states appear to vary considerably in their underreporting of non-fatal injuries. We focus on construction because of the sector's contribution to overall occupational deaths in the economy as a whole and the persistence of high rates of fatalities in the industry relative to other industries. The relatively high number of fatalities in construction also allows statistical identification of correlates with fatalities given the stochastic nature of fatal occupational injuries. Methods: The fatality data we use come from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), a data set collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1992. To obtain state identifiers, we carried out the work at the BLS Headquarters. We examine deaths through 2014 and exclude deaths due to either highway accidents or violence because these are less likely to involve traditional construction safety issues. Because of limitations on the use of data when there were fewer than 3 deaths in a state/ year, our analysis looks at 32 states for 23 years. The policy variables we look at include the frequency of inspections and the size of penalties and the magnitude of workers' compensation costs. We also consider a set of control variables. Results/Discussion: An increase from the sample mean of 6 inspections per hundred construction establishments to 9 inspections is associated with a reduction in the fatality rate of about 0.6 per 100,000, about 5%. In 2013 and 2014 inspection rates varied from only 2% in Florida to 16% in Minnesota. The other significant policy variable was the length of the waiting period before a worker could receive indemnity benefits. Those with 7-day waiting periods had substantially higher fatality rates than states with 3-day waiting periods. However, this variable is clearly capturing other features that we need to examine further.
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Occupational Health Preceptorship Safety Staff Development Surveys And Questionnaires Workplace

  More +
• Keywords:
  Construction Industry Construction Workers Fatalities Injuries Mortality Data Policy Safety Practices Workers Compensation
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract
• Place as Subject:
  Florida ; Maryland ; Minnesota ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 5 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  88
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20063000
• Citation:
  National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2018, (NOIRS 2018), October 16-18, 2018, Morgantown, West Virginia. Morgantown, WV: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2018 Oct; :88
• Contact Point Address:
  John Mendeloff, PhD, MPP, Professor, University of Pittsburgh, 3627 Posvar Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
• Email:
  JMen@pitt.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Performing Organization:
  CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20090901
• Source Full Name:
  National Occupational Injury Research Symposium 2018, (NOIRS 2018), October 16-18, 2018, Morgantown, West Virginia
• End Date:
  20240831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bf7eb86df257c8a6e61527e878fdc22925098662d30089be624123e3fbedadef6cacf27cd7e7ece45672b684492019e19cf14de98f3a946437a161de38c6adbd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/181912/cdc_181912_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 37.06 KB ]