JOB-RELATED DISEASES AND OCCUPATIONS WITHIN A LARGE WORKERS-COMPENSATION DATA SET

The objective of this report is to describe workers' job-related disea ses and the occupations associated with those diseases. The methods in clude aggregation and analysis of job-related disease and occupation d ata from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Supplementary Data System (SD S) for 1985 and 1986-the last years of data available with workers' co mpensation categories: death, permanent total, permanent partial, and temporary total and partial. Diseases are ranked according to their co ntribution to the four workers' compensation (WC) categories and also ranked within occupations according to the number of cases. Occupation s are ranked according to their contribution to specific diseases with in one of the four categories. The following diseases comprise the gre atest numbers of deaths: heart attacks, asbestosis, silicosis, and str oke. Within the permanent total category, the diseases with the greate st contributions are heart attack, silicosis, strokes, and inflammatio n of the joints. For the permanent partial category they are hearing l oss, inflammation of joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, and heart attacks . For the temporary total and partial category, they are. inflammation of joints, carpal tunnel syndrome, dermatitis, and toxic poisoning. H earing loss or inflammation of joints are associated with more than 30 0 occupations. Circulatory diseases comprise a larger share of job-rel ated diseases than is generally acknowledged. Occupations contributing the most heart attack deaths are truck drivers, managers, janitors, s upervisors, firefighters, and laborers. Ratios of numbers of deaths to numbers of disabilities are far higher for illnesses than injuries. O ccupations that are consistent in their high ranking on most lists inv olving a variety of conditions include nonconstruction laborers, janit ors and construction laborers. The large SDS, though dated, provides a tentative national look at the broad spectrum of occupational disease s as defined by WC and the occupations associated with those diseases in 1985 and 1986. Some description of the spectrum of diseases encount ered today is possible especially for occupations, such as those menti oned above for which employment has expanded in the 1990s. (C) 1998 Wi ley-Liss, Inc.