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Nonfatal Work Injuries in Ohio Below National Average
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Employers now can find state and national data about nonfatal injuries in the workplace on the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation website. The data show that such injuries and illnesses in Ohio are lower than the national average.
The 2012 results show that Ohio had 3.2 recordable injuries and/or illnesses per 100 full-time workers -- lower than the national average of 3.7. “Although one injury is too many, we are very encouraged by the fact that Ohio’s injury rates are relatively lower than our neighboring states and we believe our emphasis on preventing occupational injuries will continue to pay dividends,” said Steve Buehrer, BWC administrator/CEO,in a prepared statement.
Each year, the BWC will select a representative sample that consists of more than 4,000 private and public employers in the state to participate in the survey and it will work with these selected employers in completing the survey and collecting the data.
The survey estimates 129,200 recordable cases of nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses occurred in Ohio in 2012. About 28% of the cases involved an employeee missing one or more days of work; about 18% involved one or more days of an employee who works in job restriction/transfer; and the remaining 53% were recordable cases without time off work.
The data show that transportation and warehousing had the most nonfatal injury and illness incidents in private industry. Other industries with high incident rates were health care and social assistance, manufacturing, retail trade and construction.
For injuries with more than one day away from work, more men than women experienced a nonfatal injury or illness that caused them to miss more than one day of work, and more cases occurred in the age group of 35 to 44 years old. The back was injured more than any other part of the body, followed by injuries to the hands and knees. Falls on the same level and overexertion in lifting were the most common events where an injury occurred.
Statistics for the public sector consist only of local government employees and show workers in utilities had higher incident rates of occupational injuries than any other segment. That was followed by transportation and warehousing, health care and social assistance and public administration.
For injuries with more than one day away from work, men had more injuries than women. Relative to age, the most injuries occurred among the 35 to 44 age group. Injuries to the back, knee and ankle were the top three among employees in this sector.
The data were compiled as part of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2012 Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
For more information on the survey, visit this website.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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