Occupational Accidents Due to Stepladders in Japan: Analysis of Industry and Injured Characteristics

Abstract

In this study, occupational accident cases in Japan were analyzed to better characterize accidents due to the use of stepladders. The analysis investigated 34,195 occupational accidents that resulted in at least a four-day absence from work in 2006 (25.5% of total occupational accidents), based on casualty reports from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The instances were classified by industry type, accident type, number of absent days, victim's age, gender, employment period, injury/disease type, and injured body part. The results of the analysis revealed that there were 992 accidents (six were fatal) due to stepladders in 2006, representing 2.9% of all accidents that year. The total number of estimated accidents that year was 3,896 (24 were fatal). The results also indicated that individuals who fell from stepladders most frequently suffered from fractures (68.6%) or contusions (16.2%) and that 64.9% of all victims took more than a month's leave of absence. The most common injured parts were the lower limbs (34.7%) and the upper limbs (21.4%). For 18.4% victims, the length of employment with the company they were working for at the time of the accident was one year or less. Most of the accidents occurred while standing on the stepladder (70.4%), whereas 19.4% and 7.9% of the accidents occurred during descending and ascending, respectively. Moreover, out of all the stepladder accidents in 2006, 45.4% occurred in the construction industry, 15.5% in the manufacturing industry, and 12.3% in the commercial industry. The occurrence rate of stepladder accidents in different industries were 7.9% in construction, 4.4% in cleaning, and 3.8% in agriculture and forestry, which were higher than the mean rate (2.9%). This result demonstrates that further research is needed to investigate the working methods with stepladders and their risk evaluation.