Percent distribution of work-related amputations and employment by industry division and selected industries, private sector, 23 States, 1977
- Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries . . . . . . . . . . . .6 2.7
- Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2.9
- Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 .3 9.0
- Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 .7 59.8
- Meat products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1 .9
- Sawmills and planing mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 2.3
- Millwork, plywood, and structural members . . . 8 2.2
- Miscellaneous plastics products . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1 .8
- Fabricated structural metal products . . . . . . . . 6 2.2
- Metal forgings and stampings . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2.3
- Miscellaneous fabricated metal products . . . . . 4 1 .6
- Motor vehicles and equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 .2 4.3
- Transportation and public utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .1 3.1
- Trucking, local and long distance . . . . . . . . . . 1 .7 1 .9
- Wholesale and retail trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.2 15.8
- Grocery stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 .5 2.9
- Eating and drinking places . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 .2 2.7
- Finance, insurance, and real estate . . . . . . . . . . 6 .8 7
- Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 .5 5.8
Employment data were obtained from County Business Patterns, 1977 (Bureau of the Census, 1979). Employment data for Maine were obtained from County Business Patterns 1976 (Bureau of the Census, 1978).
2 Injury data are from 1977 SIDS records of 8,602 "current-case" amputations. States included are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
Each year, American workers suffer disfiguring and often seriously disabling amputations as a result of their jobs. This study estimates that 21,000 such accidents took place in 1977, and attempts to isolate the industries, occupations, and situations in which they were most likely to occur.
In addition to machines, conveyors and metal items were a substantial cause of arm amputations. Conveyors, vehicles, and boxes and containers were frequent sources of leg amputations.
