Safety and Health

New Data Highlight

Severity of
Construction Falls

BY MARTIN E. PERSONICK”

The hazards of falling are especially prevalent in the con-
struction industry, where working at elevations is common.
These hazards explain, in part, why the industry reports dis-
proportionately large numbers of falls resulting in death, and
disabling injuries requiring lengthy absences from work.

In 1994, the construction industry accounted for over half
of the 577 American workers who fell from heights to their
death. Moreover, those who survived construction falls re-
quired relatively lengthy absences from work (typically about
3 weeks) to recuperate from their injuries. In contrast, the
average recuperation time for all workers was 1 week.

This article presents information on the severity of con-
struction falls, based on data from the BLS Census of Fatal
Occupational Injuries and Survey of Occupational Injuries
and Illnesses. The two sets of safety and health statistics
contain detailed information on how construction injuries
occurred. In addition, the survey of injuries and illnesses
measures the severity of the fall in terms of median days
away from work by type of fall.

Fatal falls

Falls from elevations led all other ways in which con-
struction workers were fatally injured in 1994, surpassing
highway incidents—which ranked first in nationwide work-
place deaths—and electrocutions, another risk that con-
struction workers face much more often than do workers
in other industries.

Falls from elevations made up three-tenths of construc-
tion fatalities, compared to a tenth of all fatal work injuries
reported by BLS' national census. The table below lists the
six leading ways in which construction fatalities occurred
and their shares of the 1994 fatality total in construction
and in all industries.

Martin E. Personick is an economist in the Office of Safety, Health, and
‘Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202) 606-6170.

Highway incident.

‘Struck by object .. 8
Worker struck by vehicle 7
Caught in collapsing material .. 6
All other events, exposures 4

Falls from roofs led all other types, accounting for a third
of the 316 construction falls to a lower level in 1994, Next
in frequency were falls from scaffolding or other temporary
platforms, comprising a fifth of the total, and falls from
ladders, making up a seventh.

The following table provides a more detailed look at
falls from roofs as well as the origination points of other
fatal falls from elevations.’

Type of fall Percent of total
Falls to lower level .. 100
Fall trom roof ... Ke
From root edge 10
Through roof surface 5
Through skylight .... 3
Through existing opening 3
Other roof falls 1
Fall from scaffold, staging 2
Fall from ladder... 1S
Fall from building girder,
structural steel member . 8
Other falls to lower level 22

Fatalities by occupation. Construction laborers were more
often fatally injured as the result of falls from elevations
than any other occupation in the construction industry, com-
prising nearly a fifth of the industry total. Next in frequency
were carpenters, roofers, and structural metal workers, each
with about a tenth of the total. Not surprisingly, falls to a
lower level was the leading way in which fatalities occurred

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 54



for all individual construction trades, accounting for the
majority of the 1994 fatality totals for roofers and struc-
tural metal workers.

Disabling falls

The construction industry led other major industrial clas-
sifications in the rate of injuries and illnesses due to falls,
including those from elevations and those on the same level.
In 1993, the industry rate for lost work days due to falls was
double the national average, at | fall-related days-away-from-
work injury for every 100 private construction workers. That
year, the construction industry reported about 42,000 disabling
falls, about a fifth of its 200,000 days-away-from-work cases
resulting from all types of events and exposures.

Disabling falls result in much longer absences from work
in the construction industry than they do in private indus-
try as a whole. As shown in table 1, the industry’s 41,800
disabling falls had a median of 14 days away from work,
double the 7-day median for the 370,000 fall cases reported
nationwide in 1993.2

Construction workers take longer to return to work after
falling than the private industry norm, regardless of the
type of fall. Falls from a ladder, for instance, are associated
with a 15-day median in construction and a 10-day median
in private industry. They also sustain certain types of falls
that require relatively lengthy recuperation periods more
often than do other private industry workers. Falls from a
ladder, for example, made up 20 percent of all disabling
construction falls, nearly triple their 7-percent share of dis-
abling falls nationwide.

In general, falls to a lower level result in proportionately
more serious injuries, such as broken bones, that require
longer recuperation periods than do falls on the same level.
In the construction industry, fractures and multiple injuries
comprised nearly two-fifths of all disabling conditions as-
sociated with falls from elevations, compared with a fourth
of those injuries resulting from falls on the same level. (See
table 1.) This explains, in part, why the 17-day median for
the 23,700 falls to a lower level in the industry far exceeded
the 10-day median for the 15,500 falls on the same level.
Nationally, the corresponding medians were 10 days to re-
cover from falls to a lower level and 7 days to return to
work after falls on the same level.

Risk of injury by occupation. The risk faced by construc-
tion workers varies by occupation. In measuring relative

tisk, occupational shares of all construction falls (shown in
table 1) were compared with occupational shares for total
employment in construction (from the Current Population
Survey). Using this method, construction laborers were at
comparatively high risk, because their share of all disabling
construction falls (more than a fifth) exceeded their one-
eighth share of private wage and salary workers in that in-
dustry. Carpenters, by contrast, experienced a sixth of all
construction falls, somewhat less than their one-fifth share
of the industry’s wage and salary workers.

Scope and methods

In terms of worker coverage, the Bureau's Survey of Oc-
cupational Injuries and Illnesses (the source of days-away-
from-work data) is more limited than the BLS Census of
Fatal Occupational Injuries (the source of fatal work injury
data). The former series relates to private wage and salary
workers only; the latter program also includes the self-em-
ployed, paid and unpaid family members, and State, local,
and Federal Government workers (both civilian and mili-
tary). Those differences are reflected in the data on con-
struction falls.

Fatal and disabling event categories discussed through-
out this article are described in detail in the 1992 BLS Oc-
cupational Injury and Illness Classification Manual.

Falls is one of seven specifically defined divisions within
the event or exposure structure. The others include trans-
portation incidents (such as highway mishaps or workers
struck by vehicles); contact with objects or equipment (for
example, struck by an object or caught in collapsing mate-
tials); exposure to harmful substance or environment (such
as, contact with electric current or contact with a caustic or
noxious substance); assaults and violent acts; bodily reac-
tion and exertion (like overexertion and repetitive motion);
and fires and explosions.

The occupation of injured workers is coded from job titles
usually indicated on the death certificate or other source
documents in the case of fatalities or supplied by the em-
ployer in days-away-from-work cases. The 1990 Occupa-
tional Classification System, developed by the Census Bu-
Teau, was used to determine the appropriate individual
occupational category. The system, for example, slots the
job title laborer into the occupation construction laborer
when construction is reported as the industry of the injured
worker. A laborer in agricultural production, however, re-
ceives the occupational code farm worker; the same title in
most other industries is coded as laborer, except construction.

— Endnotes —

" In addition to 316 falls to a lower level, the 1994 BLS fatality census
also counted 14 other fatal falls in construction. Most involved falls on the
same level that supported the construction worker at the inception of the
fall, such as a walkway.

? Median days away from work—the key measure of injury and illness

55 Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996

duration used here—designates the point at which half the total cases for the
category studied involved more days and half involved fewer days.

> Work force data are 1993 annual averages from the Current Population
Survey, conducted by the Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.



Table 1. Lost workday injuries and ilinesses resulting from falls in the construction Industry, selected characteristics, 1993

Characteristic

Characteristic

Type of fall

Disabling condition
Fall to lower level:

Occupation

Compensation and Working Conditions September 1996 56