Identification and verification of work-related fatalities. Data for these fatalities, which primarily affected self-employed workers, are included in the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries counts. An additional 28 fatalities submitted by states were not included because the initiating source document had insufficient information to determine work relationship, which could not be verified by either an independent source document or a follow-up questionnaire. States may identify additional fatal work injuries after data collection close-out for a reference year. In addition, other fatalities excluded from the published count because of insufficient information to determine work relationship may subsequently be verified as work related.
States have up to one year to update their initial published state counts.
This procedure ensures that fatality data are disseminated as quickly as possible and that no legitimate case is excluded from the counts. Thus, any comparison between the BLS fatality census counts and those released by other agencies should take into account the different coverage requirements and definitions being used. Several federal and state agencies have jurisdiction over workplace safety and health. OSHA and affiliated agencies in states with approved safety programs cover the largest portion of America's workers. However, injuries and illnesses occurring in several other industries, such as coal, metal, and nonmetal mining and water, rail, and air transportation, are excluded from OSHA coverage because they are covered by other federal agencies, such as the Mine Safety and Health Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the Federal Aviation Administration.