WORKING LIFETIME RISK OF OCCUPATIONAL FATAL INJURY

Estimates of risk accumulated over a working lifetime are used to asse ss the significance of many workplace health hazards. Utilizing data f rom the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities (NTOF) surveillance system, estimates of the risk of work-related fatal injuries are prov ided for the 50 industries and the 50 occupations having the highest r isks. Cause-specific risk estimates are provided for the six occupatio ns at the greatest risk of occupational fatal injuries. Results sugges t that the risks of certain work-related fatal injuries in some occupa tions (e.g., loggers being struck by falling objects) are of the same magnitude as risks previously identified for specific occupational ill ness exposures (e.g., lung cancer among uranium miners exposed to ioni zing radiation). Assuming a 45-year working lifetime, cause-specific f atal injury risks reported in this paper range from a predetermined mi nimum of 1 death per 1,000 lifetime workers to 36.4 deaths per 1,000 l ifetime workers. These results suggest that risk assessment for trauma tic causes of death should be considered equally with risk assessments for health exposures, such as potential carcinogens. (C) 1997 Wiley-L iss, Inc.