The Economic Cost of Fatal Occupational Injuries in the United States, 1980–97

According to the National Traumatic Occupational Fatalities (NTOF) surveillance system, occupational injuries claimed the lives of over 100,000 American workers from 1980 to 1997. Previous estimates presented aggregate values of life, providing no information on the cost variations for different case or worker characteristics. This research developed an interactive computer program that estimates comprehensive national costs for all occupational fatal injuries reported through NTOF, nearly $85 billion for 1980–97, and specific estimates for the burden on selected groups and characteristics of the fatality. These estimates provide an additional basis for targeting and evaluating the effectiveness of investments in prevention of occupational fatalities. (JEL I18)

[1]  D. West,et al.  Comparison of occupational interview data to death certificate data in Utah. , 1987, American journal of industrial medicine.

[2]  H. Frumkin,et al.  Costs of occupational injury and illness in Pennsylvania. , 1991, Journal of occupational medicine. : official publication of the Industrial Medical Association.

[3]  R. W. Burrows,et al.  An assessment of occupation and industry data from death certificates and hospital medical records for population-based cancer surveillance. , 1984, American journal of public health.

[4]  J. Fulton,et al.  Agreement of occupation and industry data on Rhode Island death certificates with two alternative sources of information. , 1985, Public health reports.

[5]  M. Schumacher.  Comparison of occupation and industry information from death certificates and interviews. , 1986, American journal of public health.

[6]  P J Landrigan,et al.  Health costs of occupational disease in New York State. , 1989, American journal of industrial medicine.

[7]  J Lipscomb,et al.  Time Preference for Health in Cost-Effectiveness Analysis , 1989, Medical care.

[8]  G. Swanson,et al.  Comparison of death certificate occupation and industry data with lifetime occupational histories obtained by interview: variations in the accuracy of death certificate entries. , 1988, American journal of industrial medicine.

[9]  Elyce A Biddle,et al.  Comparison of two fatal occupational injury surveillance systems in the United States. , 2002, Journal of safety research.

[10]  T R Miller,et al.  Estimating the costs of occupational injury in the United States. , 1995, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[11]  A. Bostrom,et al.  The Overestimated Workweek? What Time Diary Measures Suggest , 1994 .