What’s the Cost of an Injury?

Details

• Personal Author:
  Heberger JR
• Description:
  Do you have any idea how much a lacerated finger or back sprain can cost your company? Safety Pays in Mining - a new, free web app from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) - can help you find out. Safety Pays in Mining not only gives you the cost of injury claims, but also reports the most common injuries and work activities by commodity, shows how selected injuries can impact profits, and offers suggestions on how that same money might be spent if injury was prevented. The web app is available on the NIOSH Mining webpage at https://go.usa.gov/xNk8U. Injuries on the job cause pain and suffering. They can also profoundly affect profits and daily operations. In addition to paying direct costs or increased premiums for workers' comp insurance, you might need to pay for overtime for other workers to fill an injured worker's role, cover training costs for a replacement, or divert administrative resources in the wake of an injury. This web app estimates the unknown distribution of these injury costs. The costs of specific types of occupational injuries in mining are not readily available because mining and insurance companies don't usually share this information. As a consequence, companies only have cost information based on previous experience with their own employees. Therefore, if a mine never experienced a finger amputation for one of its miners, it would not be aware of the possible costs. In addition, injury costs are unique in that the cost distribution is so wide - just using an average cost doesn't provide adequate information. Some injuries involve immensely high costs, and even though the risk of these injuries is low, mines need to be aware of their potential impact on their financial health. With Safety Pays in Mining, you can see what specific injuries, such as burns, fractures, dislocations, and sprains, might cost you - from $820 for an ankle sprain, to $22,500 for a fractured hand, to more than $45,000 for a sprained shoulder. You can enter your own figures, or use the default values based on the mining industry to show impact to profit margins. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Computers Mining Occupational Health Safety Software
• Keywords:
  Body Regions Commodities Computer Applications Computer Models Computer Programs Cost Analyses Costs Health Effects Injuries Injury Prevention Miners Mining Industry Social Media Website Work Analysis Workers Compensation Work Operations

  More +
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• ISSN:
  1552-3071
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  PMRD - Pittsburgh Mining Research Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  22
• Issue:
  10
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20051784
• Citation:
  Aggreg Manag 2017 Oct; 22(10):8,10-11
• Contact Point Address:
  John R. Heberger, Epidemiologist, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2018
• NORA Priority Area:
  Mining
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Aggregates Manager
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:856c0ffbfcd80149669855cb111846f9c0ef4445ce7aa033a6cd2f30bc8f9b0eb7bf26b863fff44477054b09503ac9586600748b3ec25a86a2f49ffbead8c849
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/227683/cdc_227683_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 4.48 MB ]