Trenching, Part I: Don’t Dig Your Own Grave

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lentz, Thomas J. ; Mulhern, Barbara
• Description:
  The landscape services industry is a high hazard industry. A single traumatic injury or death can put a small company out of business. According to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) fact sheet titled Fatal Injuries Among Landscape Services Workers (NIOSH Publication No. 2008-144), workers in the landscape services industry make up less than 1% of the total U.S. work force -- yet they experience approximately 3.5% of all of the occupational fatalities. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data show that 271 workers died in trenching or excavation cave-ins from 2000 through 2006. A review of multiple national databases by NIOSH researchers found that trenching and excavation hazards during construction activities resulted in 488 deaths between 1992 and 2000 - an average of 54 fatalities each year. Sixty-eight percent of those fatalities occurred in companies with fewer than 50 workers. Forty-six percent of the deaths occurred in small companies with 10 or fewer workers. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Construction Industry Mortality Occupational Health Safety Small Business
• Keywords:
  Construction Construction-industry Construction-workers Excavation-equipment Landscape-services-workers Mortality-rates Small-businesses Traumatic-injuries
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Newsletter ; Lay Publication
• Place as Subject:
  Ohio ; OSHA Region 5 ; Wisconsin
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  EID - Education and Information Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20034923
• Citation:
  Atheletic Turf News 2009 Jan; :1-2
• Email:
  bamu100@aol.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2009
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Atheletic Turf News
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:76d369d7c933fa42f8e273c54dcca4dd4bccec8c4bb0e1e54971bb54514510993caa26d2ccc7a179b24987082f5f59d12d3157b82bbf92fcb925445a72872fe3
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/186946/cdc_186946_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 285.83 KB ]