The association between safety climate and noncombat injury events among United States Air Force workers.

INTRODUCTION: Work-related injuries are a common lagging safety indicator whereas safety climate assessments can help identify constructs serving as leading indicators. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) partnered with the U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF) Safety Center to examine the association between perceptions of safety climate survey constructs and the number of injury events within the DAF workforce. METHODS: The DAF administers voluntary, anonymous, occupation-specific safety climate surveys to DAF workers using the internal Air Force Combined Mishap Reduction System (AFCMRS). Survey responses from 2014 to 2018 provided by DAF workers and injury events in maintenance, support, and operations occupations were shared with NIOSH. Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five constructs: Leadership and Communication; Organizational Safety Priority; Error Management; Resource Adequacy; and Deployment/Official Travel Impact. Squadron-level analysis included bivariate correlations and estimated Rate Ratios (RRs). RESULTS: 1,547 squadrons administered the survey, averaging 144 workers and 15.8 reportable injuries per squadron. Higher (more favorable) squadron-level construct scores were consistently correlated with fewer reported injuries (p < 0.001). Controlling for the number of workers, RRs revealed significant reductions in injury rates with each one-unit increase in responses: Leadership and Communication RR = 0.40 (95%CI: 0.32-0.48); Organizational Safety Priority RR = 0.50 (95%CI: 0.40-0.64); Error Management RR = 0.37 (95%CI: 0.30-0.47); Deployment/Official Travel Impact RR = 0.36 (95%CI: 0.29-0.45). Resource Adequacy revealed a non-significant lower injury rate RR = 0.87 (95%CI: 0.73-1.04). CONCLUSIONS: This unique study quantified safety climate and the association with injuries across a multi-year period. While safety climate measurements may be limited by frequent turnover and the self-reported, voluntary, anonymous nature of AFCMRS, the strength of this study is in the census of injuries. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Future research should include longitudinal analyses to examine the impact on injuries when squadron leaders are provided feedback on safety climate survey results.

Fatal work-related falls in the United States, 2003-2014.

BACKGROUND: Falls are the second leading cause of work-related fatalities among US workers. We describe fatal work-related falls from 2003 to 2014, including demographic, work, and injury event characteristics, and changes in rates over time. METHODS: We identified fatal falls from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and estimated rates using the BLS Current Population Survey. RESULTS: From 2003 to 2014, there were 8880 fatal work-related falls, at an annual rate of 5.5 per million FTE. Rates increased with age. Occupations with the highest rates included construction/extraction (42.2 per million FTE) and installation/maintenance/repair (12.5 per million FTE). Falls to a lower level represented the majority (n = 7521, 85%) compared to falls on the same level (n = 1128, 13%). CONCLUSIONS: Falls are a persistent source of work-related fatalities. Fall prevention should continue to focus on regulation adherence, Prevention through Design, improving fall protection, training, fostering partnerships, and increasing communication.

Work-Related Violent Deaths in the US Taxi and Limousine Industry 2003 to 2013: Disparities Within a High-Risk Working Population.

OBJECTIVE: We describe the magnitude and distribution of violent work-related deaths among taxi and limousine drivers, a high-risk population. METHODS: We analyzed rates using the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) for all violent work-related deaths in the taxi and limousine industry from 2003 to 2013. We described demographics, work characteristics, and other injury details, examining temporal trends for nativity and race/ethnicity. RESULTS: Men (adjusted rate ratio [RRadj] 6.1 [95% confidence interval [CI] 2.6-14.1]), blacks (RRadj 2.3 [95% CI 1.6-3.4]), Hispanics (RRadj 2.1 [95% CI 1.3-3.4]), and drivers in the South (RRadj 2.7 [95% CI 1.9-3.9]) had significantly higher fatality rates than comparison groups. Over time, the rates remained substantially higher compared with all workers. CONCLUSIONS: The taxi and limousine industry continues to face a disproportionately dangerous working environment. Recommended safety measures implemented uniformly by cities, companies, and drivers could mitigate disparities.

Compliance to two city convenience store ordinance requirements.

BACKGROUND: Robbery-related homicides and assaults are the leading cause of death in retail businesses. Robbery reduction approaches focus on compliance to Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) guidelines. PURPOSE: We evaluated the level of compliance to CPTED guidelines specified by convenience store safety ordinances effective in 2010 in Dallas and Houston, Texas, USA. METHODS: Convenience stores were defined as businesses less than 10 000 square feet that sell grocery items. Store managers were interviewed for store ordinance requirements from August to November 2011, in a random sample of 594 (289 in Dallas, 305 in Houston) convenience stores that were open before and after the effective dates of their city's ordinance. Data were collected in 2011 and analysed in 2012-2014. RESULTS: Overall, 9% of stores were in full compliance, although 79% reported being registered with the police departments as compliant. Compliance was consistently significantly higher in Dallas than in Houston for many requirements and by store type. Compliance was lower among single owner-operator stores compared with corporate/franchise stores. Compliance to individual requirements was lowest for signage and visibility. CONCLUSIONS: Full compliance to the required safety measures is consistent with industry 'best practices' and evidence-based workplace violence prevention research findings. In Houston and Dallas compliance was higher for some CPTED requirements but not the less costly approaches that are also the more straightforward to adopt.

Occupational ladder fall injuries - United States, 2011.

Falls remain a leading cause of unintentional injury mortality nationwide [corrected].Among workers, approximately 20% of fall injuries involve ladders. Among construction workers, an estimated 81% of fall injuries treated in U.S. emergency departments (EDs) involve a ladder. To fully characterize fatal and nonfatal injuries associated with ladder falls among workers in the United States, CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) analyzed data across multiple surveillance systems: 1) the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), 2) the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII), and 3) the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System-occupational supplement (NEISS-Work). In 2011, work-related ladder fall injuries (LFIs) resulted in 113 fatalities (0.09 per 100,000 full-time equivalent [FTE] workers), an estimated 15,460 nonfatal injuries reported by employers that involved ≥1 days away from work (DAFW), and an estimated 34,000 nonfatal injuries treated in EDs. Rates for nonfatal, work-related, ED-treated LFIs were higher (2.6 per 10,000 FTE) than those for such injuries reported by employers (1.2 per 10,000 FTE). LFIs represent a substantial public health burden of preventable injuries for workers. Because falls are the leading cause of work-related injuries and deaths in construction, NIOSH, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Center for Construction Research and Training are promoting a national campaign to prevent workplace falls. NIOSH is also developing innovative technologies to complement safe ladder use.