March/April 2009
An Occupational and Environmental Health Network Publication
Most Disabling Workplace Injuries
Feb 17, 2009 2:13 PM, by Laura Walter
The estimated direct U.S. workers compensation costs for the most disabling workplace injuries and illnesses in 2006 were $48.6 billion, according to the 2008 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index.
Produced annually, the Workplace Safety Index identifies the leading causes of the most disabling U.S. workplace injuries based on data reported from 1998 (the baseline year for Workplace Safety Index data) through the most recent year for which data are available - in this case 2006. The 2008 Index also captures cost trends for the overall and leading causes of the most disabling injuries from 1998 through 2006, with "most disabling" defined as those injuries that cause an employee to miss six or more days from work.
10 Causes of the Most Disabling Work-Related Injuries: Ranked by Cost1. Overexertion maintained its first place ranking.
2. Fall on same level ranked second as a leading cause of disabling injury.
3. Fall to lower level.
4. Bodily reaction, which includes injuries resulting from an incident of free bodily motion (such as bending, climbing, reaching, standing, sitting or slipping or tripping without falling).
5. Struck by object.
6. Struck against object moved up to sixth place.
7. Highway incidents.
8. Caught in/compressed by (injuries resulting from workers being caught in or compressed by equipment or objects).
9. The repetitive motion category.
10. Lastly, assaults and violent acts.
Overall, these 10 categories produced 87.9 percent of the entire cost burden of disabling work-related injuries in 2006.
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