Important studies and employee takeaways

Overexertion tops list of serious, nonfatal work injuries for third straight year - Liberty Mutual

The 2017 Liberty Mutual Workplace Safety Index uses Liberty Mutual workers' comp claims data, as well as information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Washington-based National Academy of Social Insurance, to determine the costliest workplace injuries and those that result in employees missing six or more days of work.

For 2014, the injuries cost employers more than one billion dollars a week, or close to $60 billion a year.

The top ten include:

1. Overexertion ($13.79B) 23%
2. Falls on same level ($10.62B) 17.7%
3. Falls to lower level ($5.50B) 9.2%
4. Struck by object or equipment ($4.43B) 7.4%
5. Other exertions or bodily reactions ($3.89B) 6.5%
6. Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicle ($3.70B) 6.2%
7. Slip or trip without falling ($2.30B) 3.8%
8. Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects ($1.95B) 3.3%
9. Struck against equipment or object ($1.94B) 3.2%
10. Repetitive motions involving micro-tasks ($1.81B) 3.0%

While overexertion, which includes lifting, pushing, pulling and other actions involving objects did decrease somewhat from 2013, falls on the same level and roadway incidents continue to trend upward.

Employer takeaway: Many employers have done a good job of implementing safety measures, adopting automation and new processes that reduce injuries, and fostering a strong safety culture, but injuries still happen. Understanding injury causation is a complex process. Factors ranging from human error, unsafe behavior, stress, and inadequate skills to unsafe conditions, insufficient training, faulty equipment, lack of supervision and so on come into play. Analyzing data to discover trends and problem spots that are driving the serious workplace injuries can help develop safety programs that target those causes. Moreover, employers have found success by increasingly involving employees in safety leadership, encouraging workers to be the "eyes and ears" of safe working practices, including the authority to stop work without fear of repercussion.

Related article: Overexertion accounts for more than 25% of the top ten injury costs: Liberty Mutual WorkComp Adv!sory - December 2015

Pressure to meet earnings expectations negatively impacts worker safety

New research in the Journal of Accounting and Economics, "Earnings expectations and employee safety" examined the relation between workplace safety and managers' attempts to meet earnings expectations. The finding: significantly higher injury/illness rates in firms that meet or just beat analyst forecasts compared to firms that miss or comfortably beat analyst forecasts.

Changes in operations or production, specifically increased workloads and abnormal reductions of discretionary expenses, that are meant to increase earnings impacted the number of workplace injuries. The relation between benchmark beating and workplace injuries is stronger when there is less union presence, when workers' compensation premiums are less sensitive to injury claims, and among firms with less government business.

Employer takeaway: When pressure is applied on managers to meet earning expectations, they can detract from safety by increasing workloads, hours, speed of workflow or cutting corners. Contrast these findings to a study published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (JOEM), that found 17 publicly held companies with strong health and/or safety programs significantly outperformed other companies in the stock market. Two additional studies also found that financially sound, high-performing companies invest in employee health and safety. Rather than deviate from normal business practices to meet earnings expectations in the short-term, these companies have an ongoing, long-term commitment to a healthy and safe workforce that tangibly contributes to the bottom line.

Worker stress most important factor in predicting workers' compensation claims and costs

In this study, "Health risk factors as predictors of workers' compensation claim occurrence and cost," published online in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers examined the predictive relationships between employee health risk factors (HRF) and workers' compensation occurrence and costs. Stress was the only HRF to exhibit a consistent relationship with claim occurrence, although the type of stress did matter. Stress at work was marginally predictive of higher odds of incurring a WC claim. Stress at home and stress over finances were predictive of higher and lower costs of claims, respectively.

Researchers noted that it could be workers who experience stress over finances return to work sooner to avoid lost wages or job loss whereas workers who experience stress at home may have low social support, an important predictor of return to work. They note the findings support the need for employers to consider Total Worker Health strategies that reduce stressors where possible and assist employees in managing life stressors.

Employer takeaway: Stress is not typically covered under workers' compensation, but, as this study points out, it can manifest itself as a physical claim that qualifies for coverage. Encouraging workers to identify and talk about the stressors on the job and ways to mitigate them, incorporating stress management as part of worker safety training, recognizing workers who don't have enough support at home may be at risk for recovery at work programs, offering flexible hours, and assessing the cultural stigma associated with mental health can help.

New report weighs in on marijuana's health benefits - nearly 100 conclusions

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine offers a rigorous review of scientific research published since 1999 about the health impacts of cannabis and cannabis-derived products - such as marijuana. It lays out substantial evidence that associates the use of cannabis with the development of psychoses and schizophrenia, but also provides studies that show its potential benefits, such as relief of chronic pain and chemotherapy-induced nausea. Other benefits include: improvement of multiple sclerosis spasticity, improvement of short-term sleep in patients with obstructive sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, and multiple sclerosis, potential improvement of anxiety symptoms, and increasing appetite and decreasing weight loss in patients with HIV and AIDS.

But it also points out potential risks: worsening of respiratory symptoms and more frequent bronchitis with long-term smoking, increase in motor vehicle accidents, low birth weight in offspring of maternal smoker, and higher risk of cannabis overdose in children in states where cannabis is legal.

The report also acknowledges that it has been difficult for researchers to do rigorous research on marijuana, partly because of the federal classification of it as a Schedule 1 substance.

Employer takeaway: This report demonstrates how much more needs to be done - many health questions remain to be answered by better research. The increased legal availability of cannabis products in many states and the uncertain legal landscape has complicated workplace policies. It's prudent for employers to establish a clear policy and communicate it effectively to employees as well as stay abreast of all legal decisions and regulations in the states where they do business.

Deadly Skyline: An annual report on construction fatalities in New York State

According to the report "Deadly Skyline: An Annual Report on Construction Fatalities in New York State," from the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, 464 construction workers died in New York between 2006 and 2015, and fatality rates have trended up 40% between 2011 and 2015. Falls are the leading cause of fatalities, accounting for 49% of construction deaths in the state and 59% in the city.

"Employing approximately (4%) of the state's workforce, the construction industry sees one-fifth of workplace fatalities," the report said. In addition, OSHA found safety violations at two-thirds of the site inspections it conducted in New York in 2014. A high percentage of sites where fatalities occurred - 87% in 2014 and 90% in 2015 - were found to have safety violations when inspected by OSHA. The report also noted non-union construction sites were especially dangerous for workers. Eighty percent of construction fatalities occurred at non-union sites in 2014, and 74% of fatalities were at non-union sites in 2015.

Latino workers also face a disproportionate risk of dying in construction incidents; 57% of construction workers who died in 2015 were Latino even though they comprise only 30% of the construction workforce.

Employer takeaway: Construction is the most dangerous industry in the country with the highest number of fatalities. In addition to tougher legislation and higher penalties, NYCOSH's recommends: