Contact: Debra Chester, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, (517) 353-1846, chester5@msu.edu; or Tom Oswald, University Relations, (517) 355-2281, oswald@msu.edu
4/27/2004
EAST LANSING, Mich. � As workers and public health professionals gather around the country this week to pay tribute to colleagues who have died on the job, a new report shows that the number of workers killed in job-related injuries decreased in 2002, the last year complete statistics were available.
The report, compiled by Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (MIFACE), a joint program of Michigan State University and Wayne State University, shows that 151 Michigan workers died from on-the-job injuries in 2002, down from 174 in 2001 and 156 in 2000. Preliminary estimates indicate 151 Michigan workers also died in 2003 from job-related injuries.
The report is released in conjunction with the Wednesday, April 28, Workers Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor the approximately 6,000 workers who die from acute on-the-job injuries every year in the United States. Another 60,000 workers are estimated to die each year in the United States from cancer, lung disease and other illnesses from work-related exposures.
According to MIFACE, more than 90 percent of Michigan workers killed on the job were males. The youngest death was that of a 13-year-old boy killed after becoming entangled in a farming tractor. The oldest was an 85-year-old owner of a car dealership who died when a car he was moving to another part of his parking lot hit a tree.
The most dangerous profession in 2002 was construction, as more than 26 percent of the deaths occurred in that field. Sixteen percent of the deaths occurred in manufacturing, 14 percent in farming and 13 percent in retail trade.
The causes of death varied, including a municipal worker electrocuted while reading a water meter, a welder killed after the 55-gallon drum he was cutting with a torch exploded, a painter who fell 120 feet from a water tower, and a heavy equipment operator who died from heat exposure.
�What�s really sad about this is that the vast majority of these deaths were preventable,� said Kenneth Rosenman, an MSU professor of medicine and director of MSU Occupational and Environmental Medicine.�Further efforts to investigate the circumstances leading to these deaths and disseminate information from what we learn are necessary to educate and, where applicable, recommend changes in regulations to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future.�
MIFACE�s main purpose is to identify the types of industries and work situations in which workers are dying from acute traumatic incidents; identify the underlying causes of work-related fatalities; and disseminate information to reduce work-related fatalities.
For the complete 2002 report and other information, access the MIFACE section on the MSU Occupational and Environmental Medicine Web site at www.chm.msu.edu/oem