The number of job-related injuries and illnesses continued to decline in 1998 for the sixth straight year, the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.

BLS said a total of 5.9 million injuries and illnesses were reported in private industry workplaces in 1998 – a 4 percent decrease from the previous year. In 1997, employers reported 6.1 million injuries and illnesses to workers.

The number of injuries alone was more than 5.5 million in 1998, compared with nearly 5.7 million in 1997. There were about 392,000 newly reported cases of job-related illnesses in 1998, compared with 430,000 in 1997.

In a separate earlier report, BLS said the number of job-related deaths fell 3 percent in 1998 to 6,026. There were 6,218 work-related deaths reported in 1997. On average, about 17 workers were fatally injured each day during 1998.

In the 1998 injury and illness report, BLS said the incidence for the year of 6.7 cases per 100 full-time workers is the lowest since the bureau began reporting this information in 1973. The incidence rate for 1997 was 7.1.

BLS noted that the drop in the number of reported cases combined with a 3 percent increase in the number of hours worked resulted in the decrease in the incidence rate.

Labor Dept. Secy. Alexis M. Herman called the 1998 workplace injury and illness report "good news for American workers and for American employers. Since 1973, occupational injury and illness rates have decreased 40 percent, and more than half of that decline occurred since 1993 when President Clinton took office."

In its annual "Death on the Job" report, the AFL-CIO said: "More than 220,000 workers can now say that their lives have been saved since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970. Unfortunately, too many workers remain at risk."

The AFL-CIO noted that the BLS surveys do not include an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 deaths annually from occupational diseases; injuries and illnesses among public sector workers; and, as BLS acknowledges, a true count of occupational illnesses because of improper diagnoses and long latency periods for some illnesses. "Moreover, the injury and illness data are developed from employer reports, which BLS does not validate," the AFL-CIO said.

Incidence rates

According to the BLS report, the injury and illness incidence rate for the goods-producing sector was 9.3 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1998, compared with 9.9 in 1997. For the service-producing sector, the incidence rate was 5.6 in 1998, compared with 5.9 in 1997.

In the goods-producing sector, manufacturing – the sector that includes most GCIU members – had the highest incidence rate at 9.7 cases per 100 full-time workers. In 1997, the incidence rate for manufacturing was 10.3.

Of the 5.9 million injuries and illnesses in 1998, about 2.8 million were lost workday cases that required recuperation away from work or restricted duties at work or both. About 1.7 million of the 1998 injuries and illnesses were serious enough to require days away from work, BLS said.

The overall lost workday incidence rate declined slightly in 1998. The incidence rate per 100 full-time workers for injuries and illnesses requiring lost workdays was 3.1 cases, compared with 3.3 in 1997. The incidence rate for cases requiring days away from work was 2.0, down slightly from 2.1 in 1997.

The lost workday incidence rate for manufacturing was 4.7 in 1998, compared with 4.8 in 1997. The incidence rate for cases requiring days away from work was 2.3 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1998, compared with 2.4 in 1997.

Printing and paper industries

In the printing and publishing industry, there were 76,500 total cases of injuries and illnesses in 1998, compared with 81,200 in 1997. There were 39,600 total lost workday cases and 23,900 cases requiring days away from work, compared with 39,000 and 24,000 respectively in 1997.

The injury and illness incidence rate in printing and publishing was 5.4 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1998, down from the 5.7 rate reported for 1997. However, the lost workday incidence rate rose to 2.8 in 1998 from 2.7 in 1997. The incidence rate for the most serious cases requiring days away from work remained the same at 1.7.

In the paper and allied products industry, there were 50,100 cases of injuries and illnesses reported in 1998, compared with 52,400 in 1997. Of those in 1998, 26,400 were lost workday cases and 14,200 cases required days away from work. There were 26,600 lost workday cases and 13,500 cases requiring days away from work in 1997.

The injury and illness incidence rate in the paper industry remained above the national average at 7.1 cases per 100 full-time workers in 1998, compared with 7.3 in 1997. The incidence rate for cases involving lost workdays remained the same in 1998 at 3.7. For cases requiring days away from work, the incidence rate rose to 2.0 in 1998 from 1.9 in 1997.

GCIU Vice Pres. Edward J. Toff, who chairs the General Board's Education Committee, said the slight declines in the overall injury and illness incidence rates for printing and publishing and paper and allied products were welcome news for GCIU members.

However, the increases in some of the incidence rates and the stagnation of other rates in the two industries "should raise flags of concern for employers," Toff said.

Illnesses

Of the 392,000 newly reported cases of occupational illnesses in 1998, 168,700 were lost workday cases and 81,900 cases required days away from work.

BLS said three-fifths of the job-related illness cases occurred in manufacturing.

Disorders associated with repeated trauma, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and noise-induced hearing loss, accounted for 253,000 cases – or 65 percent – of the newly reported illnesses, compared with 276,000 cases in 1997. BLS said 71 percent of the repeated trauma cases occurred in manufacturing industries.

In a later, more detailed report on lost worktime injuries and illnesses, BLS noted that the number of injuries and illnesses reported with only restricted work activity rather than days away from work for recuperation has increased by 70 percent since 1992.

BLS said that, as in the preceding six years, more than 40 percent of lost worktime injuries and illnesses were sprains and strains, most often involving the back.

BLS said about 593,000 musculoskeletal disorders were reported in 1998. These accounted for more than one out of three of the injuries and illnesses involving recuperation away from work. Commenting on the report, Herman said musculoskeletal disorders – "like the proverbial junkyard dog that bites a leg and won't let go – keep hanging on as a leading cause of workplace injuries and illnesses."

Work-related fatalities

BLS said an 18 percent drop in job-related homicides – from 860 in 1997 to 709 in 1998 – accounted for a large portion of the overall 3 percent decrease in fatal occupational injuries in 1998. Deaths caused by being struck by falling objects or caught in running machinery also fell from their 1997 totals.

Highway crashes continued to be the leading cause of death on the job in 1998, accounting for 24 percent of the fatal work injury total. Deaths from highway crashes increased to 1,431 in 1998 from 1,393 in 1997.

Of all workplace deaths in 1998, 44 percent were related to transportation incidents; 16 percent were related to assaults and violent acts; 16 percent were related to contact with objects and equipment; 12 percent were related to falls; 9 percent were related to exposure to harmful substances or environments; and 3 percent were related to fires and explosions.