Workers' Compensation Claims of Union Carpenters 1989–1992: Washington State

Abstract Despite reports of high injury rates through the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), little epidemiologic literature is available on work-related illness and injury among the construction trades, particularly among carpenters. By combining administrative data sources, the workers' compensation experience is described for a dynamic cohort of union carpenters in Washington State from 1989 to 1992. The data are compared to published reports from the BLS. From United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners eligibility files a historical cohort of 11,232 carpenters was identified who had worked at least 3 months of union hours between 1989 and 1992. The union provided the number of hours worked by each carpenter by month, providing person-hours at risk. The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) provided all workers' compensation claims for these carpenters for the same time period. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) codes in the L&I files provided the part of the body involved, the...