Kentucky begins surveillance of occupational burns [KMN].

Details

• Personal Author:
  Scheerer A
• Description:
  Occupational burns place a tremendous burden on the workforce, the medical community, and employers in Kentucky. In cooperation with the Kentucky Department for Public Health (KDPH), the Occupational Injury Prevention Program (OJPP) at the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) will establish a statewide occupational burn surveillance system to identify causes and trends of work-related bums and monitor progress toward reducing these injuries. Funding for this project is provided by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Case identification began in January and will continue for five years. Between 1994 and 1996, 52 workers died from burns, explosions or electrocutions. Most of these workers were less than 40 years old. In 1995, 1,195 Workers' Compensation claims were filed for work-related burns; 55 workers were hospitalized. The industries with the most claims were retail trade (34 percent) and manufacturing (23 percent). About 68 percent of the claims resulted in lost work time, and 32 percent resulted in temporary disability. An average of 6.4 days were lost from work, and the total value for these claims was more than $2.6 million. This initiative for a statewide burn injury surveillance system focuses on identifying risk factors associated with the workplace (e.g., the task, environment, machine, worker) to develop injury prevention strategies. Using epidemiologic principles, the specific aims of the project are to: 1. Identify the incidence of burns as an occupational injury (including thermal, electrical, chemical, friction and radiation burns). 2. Identify trends in burn cases quickly. 3. Develop and implement interventions to reduce the incidence of burn injury. 4. Evaluate the economic savings of interventions. Cases will be identified primarily through hospital burn units, emergency departments, the Kentucky Department of Workers' Claims, Kentucky Employers' Mutual Insurance, and death certificates. Members of the medical community, most notably private physicians and emergency department personnel, are in an excellent position to notify OIPP of work-related burn cases presenting for treatment. Only through the active involvement of health care providers can this project succeed in identifying and ultimately reducing the .incidence of these traumatic injuries. Additionally, practitioners will be an invaluable part of the project by disseminating. prevention information to patients whose work histories indicate a potential for burn injuries. Data generated from burn surveillance activities will be disseminated to workers and employers, trade organizations, health professionals, public agencies, and the general public via news media. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Burns Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Safety Skin
• Keywords:
  Burns; Occupational-hazards; Occupational-health-services; Occupational-accidents; Skin; Skin-exposure; Surveillance-programs; Injuries; Traumatic-injuries
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Newsletter
• Place as Subject:
  Kentucky ; OSHA Region 4
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  22
• Volume:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20033540
• Citation:
  Ky Med News 1998 Jan; 4:22
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1998
• Performing Organization:
  Kentucky Department of Health Services
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  19930930
• Source Full Name:
  Kentucky Medical News
• End Date:
  20060831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4bb9c3e65343f6a9d22d97fd9407322d4254065c2e1a64e530a20fe494d91bda98f1f1794fae49251a11cfebadda418cd75f4b2449e96fb47eefeb510c4f970f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/249178/cdc_249178_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 297.77 KB ]