Accidents in the workplace

C Harker, A B Matheson, J A Ross, A Seaton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A prospective survey of patients attending the central Accident and Emergency Department and Eye Casualty Department in Aberdeen was made to determine the contribution of accidents at work to the workload of the departments and to estimate risks of injury in different industrial sectors. Work-related injuries accounted for 16.5 per cent of new patients attending the general accident department and 21.7 per cent of those attending eye casualty. Analysis by industrial sector led to estimates that almost one in 10 workers employed in manufacturing industries and in agriculture/forestry/fishing will attend casualty in the course of a year for a work-related injury. The relatively low-risk service sector, because of the large numbers of people employed, contributed the greatest number of individuals with work-related injuries. Two industries had very high rates of specific and preventable injuries--food and fish processing with an estimated 17 knife lacerations per 1000 per annum and mechanical engineering with 60 eye injuries per 1000 per annum. We give reasons for believing that our estimates of risk in the different industrial sectors are conservative.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)73-6
Number of pages4
JournalThe Journal of the Society of Occupational Medicine
Volume41
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 1991

Keywords

  • Accidents, Occupational
  • Data Interpretation, Statistical
  • Eye Injuries
  • Female
  • Great Britain
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Prospective Studies

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