NIOSH focuses on small businesses in safety report
September 1, 1999 2 minutes read
NIOSH focuses on small businesses in safety report
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in Cincinnati is offering a report that provides new information on the risk of occupational injuries and illnesses in small businesses. The report can help occupational safety and health professionals focus injury and illness prevention in areas of small business where the greatest need exists.
Advice in the report is based on a recent NIOSH study in which researchers found that the highest-risk small business industries, when both fatal and non-fatal injury and illness measures are combined, are cut stone and stone products; truck terminal facilities; and roofing, siding, and sheet metal work. These small business industries also had some of the highest average annual costs for occupational injury and illness per employee, ranging from $935 per employee in roofing, siding, and sheet metal work to $5,703 per employee in logging. In comparison, average annual costs for major industries with larger employers are highest in construction ($781 per employee) and manufacturing ($627 per employee), and lowest in finance, insurance, and real estate ($153 per employee).
The report notes that the leading causes of fatal occupational injuries among various small business industries are transportation incidents, assaults and violent acts, contact with objects and equipment, and falls. Highest rates for fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 employees occurred in taxis (324), trucking terminal facilities (159), soil preparation services (115), logging (108), and cut stone and stone products (49.6). In comparison, the average annual fatality rate for all industries is 4.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers. The greatest numbers of fatalities in small business industries occurred among general contractors and operative builders, miscellaneous special trade contractors, employees in eating places, logging, and taxi drivers.
Free copies of Identifying High-Risk Small Business Industries: The Basis for Preventing Occupational Injury, Illness, and Fatality, NIOSH (DHHS), Publication No. 99-107, are available from NIOSH at (800) 356-4674.
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