Texas, Oklahoma Enjoy Lower Workplace Injury, Illness Rates

For the second year in a row, Oklahoma workplaces set records for lower numbers of recordable injuries and illnesses, as well as lower injury and illness rates, according to the state’s Department of Labor. Mean-while, the Texas Workers’ Comp-ensation Commission reported that in the latest reporting period for nonfatal workplace injury and illness incidence rates, the Texas rate was lower than the national rate.

In Oklahoma the 2003 state workplace injury and illness rate of five per 100 full-time workers was the lowest since the DOL began tracking the data in 1983 and was on par with the nat-ional rate. The Oklahoma rate represents a 40 percent drop since Labor Commissioner Brenda Reneau launched the Safety Pays promotion of workplace safety in 1996.

In 2003, the Texas incidence rate was four injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers, while the national incidence rate was five per 100. This is the 14th consecutive year that the Texas rate has been lower than the U.S. rate.

Reneau said that in Oklahoma, the “success of workplace safety programs in the manufacturing industry is especially spectacular.” Since 1994, the injury and illness rate for the manufacturing sector has plunged 48 percent from 14.3 per 100 workers in her state to an all-time low of 7.5 per 100 workers in 2003. Manufacturing accounted for 22 percent of all workplace injuries and illnesses in Oklahoma in 2003. The 10,600 recordable injuries and illnesses represent a 16 percent drop from the 12,600 injuries and illnesses recorded in 2002.

The Texas rate information was obtained from a survey conducted by the TWCC in cooperation with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The totals were based on survey findings from approximately 11,000 private industry employers.

In 2003, the transportation and warehousing sector had the highest injury and illness incidence rate in the United States and in Texas. Manufacturing had the second highest rate, and health care and social assistance was third highest.

Transportation and warehousing includes industries that provide transportation of passengers and cargo, warehousing and storage of goods, and scenic and sightseeing transportation. Manufacturing is comprised of industries engaged in mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation of materials, substances, or components into new products. The health care and social assistance category in-cludes industries such as medical establishments and programs that provide for individual and family needs.

For information on the Oklahoma Labor Department’s Safety Pays consultation program call toll-free statewide at (888) 269-5353, ext 276.

Additional Texas fatal and nonfatal occupational injury and illness data are available online through standard or customized tables at www.twcc.state.tx.us/rss/twcc/hsdata_select.html or by contacting TWCC’s Safety Inform-ation Systems Section at (512) 804-4637 or Injury.Analysis@twcc.state.tx.us.

Topics Texas Commercial Lines Business Insurance Oklahoma Manufacturing