Injuries among electric power industry workers, 1995-2013
| Autor: | Gabor Mezei, Ximena Vergara, Tiffani A. Fordyce, Vitaly Volberg, Lovely Krishen, Megan J. Leonhard |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Occupational group Adolescent Databases Factual Occupational injury Poison control Suicide prevention Occupational safety and health 03 medical and health sciences Young Adult 0302 clinical medicine Risk Factors Injury prevention Forensic engineering Medicine Humans 030212 general & internal medicine Safety Risk Reliability and Quality Aged business.industry Human factors and ergonomics Middle Aged medicine.disease 030210 environmental & occupational health Occupational Injuries United States Female Electric power industry Safety business Demography Power Plants |
| Zdroj: | Journal of safety research. 60 |
| ISSN: | 1879-1247 |
| Popis: | Introduction Workers in the electric power industry face many risks of injury due to the high diversity of work tasks performed in potentially hazardous and unpredictable work environments. Method We calculated injury rates by age, sex, occupational group, and injury type among workers in the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Occupational Health and Safety Database (OHSD), which contains recordable injury, medical claims, and personnel data from 18 participating electric power companies from 1995 to 2013. Results The OHSD includes a total of 63,193 injuries over 1,977,436 employee-years of follow-up, for an overall injury rate of 3.20 injuries per 100 employee-years. Annual injury rates steadily decreased from 1995 to 2000, increased sharply in 2001, and subsequently decreased to their lowest rate of 1.31 injuries per 100 employee-years in 2013. Occupations with the highest injury rates were welders (13.56 per 100 employee-years, 95% CI 12.74–14.37), meter readers (12.04 per 100 employee-years, 95% CI 11.77–12.31), and line workers (10.37 per 100 employee-years, 95% CI 10.19–10.56). Males had an overall higher injury rate compared to females (2.74 vs. 1.61 per 100 employee-years) although some occupations, such as meter reader, had higher injury rates for females. For all workers, injury rates were highest for those in the 21 to 30 age group (3.70 per 100 employee-years) and decreased with age. Welders and machinists did not follow this trend and had higher injury rates in the 65 + age group. There were 63 fatalities over the 1995 to 2013 period, with 21 fatalities (33.3%) occurring among line workers. Conclusions Although injury rates have decreased over time, certain high-risk groups remain (i.e., line workers, mechanics, young males, older welders and machinists, and female meter readers). Practical applications Protective measures and targeted safety programs may be warranted to ensure the safety of electric power workers. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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