Lifetime Risk of Fatal Occupational Injuries within Industries, by Occupation, Gender, and Race

Abstract

Estimates of risk accumulated over a working lifetime are used to assess the significance of many workplace health hazards. Most studies which have estimated this risk have focused on a worker's lifetime risk of dying of a stated illness based on exposure to a hazard in a specific job. The concept, however, has not been widely applied to occupational injury deaths. This study examines the use of lifetime risk based on national fatal injury data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). Lifetime risks are defined by specific causal events for those groups identified as having the highest general lifetime risks. The lifetime risk model for injury used in this work can be compared with risk assessments for occupational illnesses. Fatal injury lifetime risk estimates will be useful in defining traumatic injury exposures that are appropriate for targeting research and prevention efforts needed to reduce the burden of work-related death within the United States. These estimates also provide a means of prioritizing traumatic injury research with fatal illness research, while providing the additional benefit of providing a means of informing workers of their fatal injury risks.