Occupational Injuries and Deaths Among Younger Workers – United States, 1998–2007

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Personal Author:
  Castillo, Dawn N. ; Estes, C. R. ; Jackson, Larry L.
• Description:
  Younger workers (defined as those aged 15-24 years) represent 14% of the U.S. labor force and face high risk for injury while on the job. To assess trends and help guide efforts to improve young worker safety, CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System occupational supplement (NEISS-Work) for the period 1998-2007. This report summarizes the results of that analysis. During the 10-year period, 5,719 younger workers died from occupational injuries. The fatality rate for younger workers was 3.6 deaths per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers (FTE) (one FTE = 2,000 hours worked per year) and was lower than the rate for older workers (defined as aged =25 years) (4.4 deaths per 100,000 FTE). The fatality rate decreased an estimated 14% during the 10-year period. For the same period, an estimated 7.9 million nonfatal injuries to younger workers were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs). The nonfatal injury rate was 5.0 ED-treated injuries per 100 FTE and was approximately two times higher than among workers aged =25 years. The rate of nonfatal injuries among younger workers declined 19%, but the decline was not statistically significant. Public health, labor, and trade organizations should provide guidance to employers to help them in their responsibilities to provide safer workplaces and should identify steps that employers can take to remove or reduce injury hazards. Employers need to ensure that their younger workers have the requisite training and personal protective equipment to perform their jobs safely. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Emergency Responders Mortality Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Race Factors Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Sex Characteristics

  More +
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Age-groups Disabled-workers Emergency-treatment Information-retrieval-systems Injuries Lost-work-days Mortality-data Mortality-rates Occupational-accidents Occupational-hazards Occupations Racial-factors Risk-analysis Risk-factors Sex-factors Statistical-analysis Surveillance Traumatic-injuries Workers

  More +
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Publisher:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (U.S.)
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  United States
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• Volume:
  59
• Issue:
  15
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20036712
• Citation:
  MMWR 2010 Apr; 59(15):449-455
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2010
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9267edffdccca3b985f5722206d6f9be306ce6e577da110778c2958f3aa08a6513d4d774e8ac786641473e5c973059b6f21bed703ed01d61db6e0e256315cdf5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/183232/cdc_183232_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 230.62 KB ]