Percent distribution of lost-worktime injuries and illnesses
for four disabling conditions, by major event and exposure, 1995

(Carpal tunnel
syndrome

‘Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Survey of Occupational injuries and liinesses, 1985

(14%)

‘Amputation

object(s)

Fracture}

Compensation and Working Conditions Fall 1997

54


Safety and Health

Types of Work
Injuries Associated
with Lengthy
Absences from

Work

BY MARTIN E. PERSONICK

Workers afflicted with carpal tunnel syndrome typically
missed 30 days of work, the lengthiest absence reported for
any major type of job-related injury or illness covered by
the Bureau’s Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
Work-related hernias, amputations, and fractures also com-
monly kept workers off the job for several weeks, far longer
than the national median of 5 workdays lost for all types of
nonfatal injuries and illnesses in 1995. This article sum-
marizes the characteristics of these serious nonfatal inju-
ties and illnesses and compares their profiles to the na-
tional profile, for all nonfatal incidents involving days away
from work. Median days away from work is the measure
used to summarize information on the number of days away
from work counted for individual survey cases. The 1995

Martin E. Personick is an economist in the Office. of Safety, Health and
Working Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202) 606-6168.

median for carpal tunnel syndrome of 30 days, for example,
signifies that half the 31,500 cases associated with that con-
dition involved more than 30 days away from work, and
half involved fewer than 30 days. For some workers, how-
ever, the number of workdays missed after sustaining a cer-
tain type of injury or illness can vary widely from the norm
(median). Table 1 shows, for instance, that a fourth of the
work-related carpal tunnel syndrome cases lasted 10 days
orless. Absences from work due to carpal tunnel syndrome
can differ, depending on injury severity, time to heal, and
whether the injured temporarily performs light work ac-
tivities (e.g., non-typing duties) while recovering.

Severe injuries profiled

This section looks at work-related carpal tunnel syn-
drome, hernias, amputations, and fractures—the four most
disabling conditions shown in table 1—from three differ-

Table 1. Nature of injury or illness: Number of work-related cases and days away from work, 1995

Percent of total cases involving: Median
ea - :
Disabling condition Total cases'/ erg 31010 111020 21 ays or (ays away

2,040,929 30 4 " 24 5

31,457 7 18 14 62 30

30,482 5 16 25 54 22

14,308 | 10 2 18 50 21

124,601 14 25 14 46 18

876,792 27 38 12 23 5

153,193 a 35 10 13 3

13,861 52 34 7 7 2

"Total days away from work cases includes data for involved fewer days.

disabling conditions in addition to those shown separately.
2 Median workdays lost is the point at which half the
injuries and illnesses involved more lost ‘workdays and half

51 Compensation and Working Conditions Fall 1997

NOTE: Because of rounding, Percentages may not add to 100.
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor


ent views: Gender, occupation, and event or exposure. Table
2 contains a percent distribution of each condition’s case
total by these three characteristics.

Men dominated three of the four types of severe injuries,
but women outnumbered men suffering from carpal tunnel
syndrome—the condition associated with most workdays
missed. As table 2 shows, women workers were a clear
majority (seven-tenths) of the lost-worktime cases involv-
ing carpal tunnel syndrome, compared with less than a tenth
of the case totals for hernias and amputations, and a fourth
of all fractures. More women sustained carpal tunnel syn-
drome operating machinery, on assembly lines, and tend-
ing retail stores than they did typing, keying, and perform-
ing other duties associated with office workers. Nationally,
women made up about a third of the 2 million injuries and
illnesses in 1995 with days away from work, a smaller pro-
portion than their 45-percent share of the 95 million pri-
vate wage and salary workers covered by the BLS survey.

Workers sustaining the aforementioned injuries per-
formed a variety of work activities, such as handling cleri-
cal and sales duties, operating or repairing machinery, fab-
ricating products on assembly lines, moving material by
hand or truck, cleaning and maintaining buildings, and
staffing construction sites. Although workers in these kinds
of occupations figured prominently in all lost-worktime in-
juries, their risk of sustaining some severe injuries appears
to be particularly high. Assemblers’ share of total lost-
worktime injuries and ilinesses (2.7 percent), for example,
was twice their portion of total private wage and salary
employment (1.3 percent); their share of carpal tunnel syn-
drome cases, however, was 8 percent. Similarly, truckdrivers
sustained 9 percent of all fractures and about 7'/2 percent of
all lost-worktime cases; they were about 2'/, percent of the
1995 employment total.

The manner in which workers sustained severe injuries
differed, suggesting that remedies to prevent such injuries
need to address a variety of hazardous working conditions
and unsafe work practices (see chart). Virtually all cases
of carpal tunnel syndrome resulted from stress or strain upon
aworker’s wrist due to a task’s repetitive nature. Examples
include grasping and unraveling bolts of cloth, scanning
groceries, typing or key entry, and cutting meat or poultry
onan assembly line. By contrast, about three-fifths of work-
related amputations involved a worker’s finger being caught
in or compressed by a piece of equipment, machinery, or an
object, such as a conveyor, printing press, or wire reel.
Seven-eighths of the hernias resulted from overexertion,
primarily while workers lifted heavy objects, laborers moved
household goods, or butchers maneuvered carcasses of meat,
for example. Seven-tenths of fractures on the job were due
to falls or workers being struck by objects, such as janitors
falling off ladders or falling lumber hitting carpenters. For
all lost-worktime injuries and illnesses, the leading event
and exposure was overexertion (slightly more than a fourth
of the total of 2 million cases). Next in frequency among
all types of lost-worktime. injuries and illnesses were ob-

striking workers and workers falling to the same level, such
as the ground or walkway that supported them at the incep-
tion of the fall; each category accounted for about an eighth
of the 2-million case total.

Survey scope, methods, and definitions

The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Ilnesses is a
Federal/State program (equally funded) in which employer
reports are collected from about 250,000 private industry
establishments, and processed by State agencies cooperat-
ing with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational in-
jury and illness data for coal, metal, and nonmetal mining
and for railroad activities were provided by the Department
of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration and the
Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Admin-
istration. The survey excludes all fatalities at work and
work-related nonfatal injuries to, and illnesses of, the self-
employed; workers on farms with fewer than 1! employ-
ees; private household workers; and employees in Federal,
State, and local government agencies.

For injuries and illnesses involving days away from work,
1995 survey participants provided information on the char-
acteristics of workers disabled and the disabilities they sus-
tained. Employers also reported the number of missed work-
days due to each injury or illness. Occupation and gender
profiles, shown in this article for four severe work disabili-
ties, are based on two of five worker characteristics reported
by employers (the other three are age, race/ethnic origi
and length of service with employer at the time of the in
dent). Information provided on the physical characteris-
tics of the disabling condition was used by survey coders to
identify the nature of the injury or illness, while informa-
tion on how the incident occurred enabled coders to clas-
sify the event and exposure leading to a lost-worktime in-
jury or illness. The part of body affected and the primary
injury or illness-producing source were also described and
coded for each injury or illness involving days away from
work; these characteristics were not profiled here primarily
due to limitations. of space and time.

The four severe injuries and illnesses profiled in this
article are described in detail in the 1992 BLS Occupa-
tional Injury and IIIness Classification Manual. Carpal tun-
nel syndrome results from a compression of the median
nerve where it passes through the wrist. Hernias include
those of the abdominal cavity (e.g., inguinal, hiatal, ven-
tral) and are characterized by the protrusion of an internal
body structure through the abdominal wall. Amputations
include traumatic loss of limb or other external body part
resulting in bone loss. Fractures are traumatic injuries re-
sulting in broken bones or teeth. The categories used here
to describe the way in which these disabilities occurred are
part of seven specifically defined divisions comprising the
BLS event and exposure code structure: Contact with ob-
jects and equipment (for example, struck by an object or
caught in a piece of machinery); falls (including those on
the same level and those to a lower level); bodily reaction

Compensation and Working Conditions Fall 1997 52


and exertion (for example, overexertion and repetitive mo-
tion); exposure to harmful substances or environments (such
as contact with electric current); transportation accidents,
(including, for example, highway mishaps); fires and ex-
plosions; and assaults and violent acts.

The 1990 Occupational Classification System, developed
by the Census Bureau, was used to determine the appropri-

ate occupational category. The system, for example, places
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 in con-
struction.

Table 2. Profiles for four types of injuries resutting in lengthy absences from work, by gender, occupations most often affected, and

ways in which injury occurred, 1995

CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME

31,457

B83 wuBwolvuond

aBnd

AMPUTATION
Number of cases 11,308
Percent ... 100
Sex of injured: 100
Female 9
90
100
30
3
Punching and stamping press 2
Precision production and craft 7
3
3
2
“a
6
4
3
3
Event or exposure: .. 100
61
19
Stuck aganonipctis oven 13
All other events, exposures 8

Struck by object(s) ..
Caughtin, compressed by equip-

NOTE: Each profile is a percent distribution of cases involving
days away from work. The four disabling conditions are part of the
BLS nature of injury and illness classification structure, issued in

53 Compensation and Working Conditions Fall 1997

1992. Because of rounding and omitted subcategories, percent-
ages may not add to 100.
SOURCE: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor