50,000 new amputations occur every year in the U.S. based on information from National Center for Health Statistics. Ratio of upper limb to lower limb amputation is 1:4. Most common is partial hand amputation with loss of one or more fingers -- 61,000. Next common is loss of one arm -- 25,000.
Amputations are widespread and involve a variety of activities and equipment. Each year, thousands of workers lose fingers, hands, feet, and other body parts–mostly through compression, crushing, or by getting them caught between or struck by objects. Most amputations involve fingertips.
After two workers suffered partial amputations of their index fingers in separate incidents in October 2015, federal investigators found numerous machines lacked safety guards at the Holdrege facility of Becton, Dickinson and Company, a global medical technology company.
During the first full year of a new reporting requirement, employers reported 10,388 severe injuries, including 7,636 hospitalizations and 2,644 amputations.
Posted with permission from ProPublica; this story was co-published with NPR.
A campaign by some of America’s biggest companies to “opt out” of state workers’ compensation — and write their own plans for dealing with injured workers — was dealt a major blow Friday when an Oklahoma commission ruled the alternative system unconstitutional.
An aviation company whose employees have quadruple the rate of injuries of other workers in their risk class has been cited by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) for multiple health and safety violations.
The award-winning NIOSH Ladder Safety App is now updated based on our users’ feedback. First introduced in 2013, the app has received much positive feedback.
Falls – many involving ladders – are a leading cause of workplace injuries, according to a NIOSH study.
Researchers examined data from several surveillance systems, including the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses and the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System – Work Supplement.
Early in the science fiction thriller Ex Machina, Nathan Bateman, the brilliant and unnerving CEO of a successful software company, says to his star programmer, “Over the next few days, you're going to be the human component in a Turing test.” Despite the ominous sound of Bateman’s statement, intensified by his underground laboratory’s location on a remote mountain, the Turing test is relatively simple.
Meet our presenters.
Oliver Wirth, Ph.D., Health Effects Laboratory Division, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
Dr. Oliver Wirth is a Research Psychologist in the Health Effects Laboratory Divi-sion of the NIOSH and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
