Welding Related Occupational Eye Injuries: A Narrative Analysis

Details

• Personal Author:
  Courtney TK ; Lombardi DA ; Pannala R ; Smith GS ; Sorock, Gary S. ; Verma S ; Wellman H
• Description:
  Objective: To determine the activities and circumstances proximal to a welding related occupational eye injury, a hybrid narrative coding approach derived from two well developed classification systems was developed to categorize and describe the activity, initiating process, mechanism of injury, object and/or substance, and the use of protective eyewear from the narrative text data reported for each injury. Methods: Routinely collected workers' compensation claims over a one year period (2000) were analyzed from a large US insurance provider. An index term search algorithm of occupation, incident, and injury description fields identified 2209 potential welding related eye injury claims. After detailed review of these claims, 1353 welders and 822 non-welders were analyzed. Results: During 2000, eye(s) as the primary injured body part accounted for 5% (n = 26 413) of all compensation claims. Eye injuries accounted for 25% of all claims for welders. Subjects were mainly male (97.1%) and from manufacturing (70.4%), service (11.8%), or construction (8.4%) related industries. Most injuries were foreign body (71.7%) or burn (22.2%) and 17.6% were bilateral. Common activities include welding (31.9%) and/or grinding (22.5%). Being struck by an airborne object occurred in 56.3% of cases. Non-welders showed similar patterns except that burns (43.8%) were more frequent and more often initiated by another worker (13.9%). Conclusions: Narrative injury text provides valuable data to supplement traditional epidemiologic analyses. Workers performing welding tasks or working nearby welders should be trained to recognize potential hazards and the effective use of proper safety equipment to prevent ocular injury. Description provided by NIOSH
• Subjects:
  • Air Pollutants, Occupational
  • Burns
  • Construction Industry
  • Epidemiology
  • Eye
  • Hazardous Substances
  • Manufacturing and Industrial Facilities
  • Men
  • Occupational Health
  • Personal Protective Equipment
  More +
• Keywords:
  • Welding
  • Welders
  • Injuries
  • Eye hazards
  • Eye injuries
  • Eyes
  • Eye protection
  • Eye protective equipment
  • Protective equipment
  • Protective measures
  More +
• ISSN:
  1353-8047
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Maryland ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  174-179
• Volume:
  11
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20057622
• Citation:
  Inj Prev 2005 Jun; 11(3):174-179
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr D A Lombardi, Quantitative Analysis Unit, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 71Frankland Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748
• Email:
  david.lombardi@libertymutual.com
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2005
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard School of Public Health
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20030701
• Source Full Name:
  Injury Prevention
• End Date:
  20050630
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/214895/cdc_214895_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 97.71 KB]
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3fe96aec245c58ec7b049391f63e47990eeaa0f6fcf055e079c4f139d8a0fa25ec73e5ef1ce4bc0b3c13bd0e61fdf87137c9054ba5aab0d15ce32f6e9d3a8ea7