Chapter 9.
Occupational Safety and Health Statistics
Part I. Survey of Occupational Injuries and
Illnesses
Background
The current BLS survey of occupational
injuries and illnesses evolved from annual BLS surveys
first conducted in the 1940s, when injury recordkeeping
standards became sufficiently uniform to permit the
collection of nationwide work injury data. Spanning three
decades, those nationwide surveys proved useful in
measuring and monitoring injury frequency and severity,
but they had two major limits. First, the survey data
were compiled from and represented only employers who volunteered
to record and report work injuries. Second, work injuries
were limited to those resulting in death, permanent
impairment, or temporary disability, defined as unable to
perform regular job duties beyond the day of injury.
Thus, survey estimates excluded, by definition, numerous
cases that required medical treatment (beyond first aid)
or restricted work duties but not lost worktime.
These and other limitations were addressed in a
landmark piece of safety legislation passed by the
Congress: The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
The 1970 act and its implementing regulations require
that most private industry employers regularly maintain
records (logs) and prepare reports on work-related
injuries and illnesses, which include all disabling,
serious, or significant injuries and illnesses, whether
or not involving time away from work.5
Clearly, the 1970 act called for a wider statistical
net to gather work injury and illness data and to measure
their numbers and incidence rates. The current survey,
with minor modifications, still meets the basic
requirements of the 1970 act for counts and rates
covering a broad spectrum of work injuries and illnesses
in various work settings. Beginning with calendar 1992,
moreover, the survey collects information on the
characteristics of the most serious of its nonfatal
cases—those involving lost worktime—and the
traits of workers sustaining such injuries and illnesses.
Footnotes
5 See section 24(a) of the Occupational Safety
and Health Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-596).
Next: Survey Definitions
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