Abstract
Construction industry workers are exposed to many hazards leading to fatal and nonfatal injuries. Information for nonfatal work-related injury surveillance may be vague and come from a variety of sources. The Alaska Trauma Registry (ATR) is used as an injury surveillance tool to focus on hospitalized nonfatal injuries in the Alaskan construction industry. During 1991-1999, 717 workers in the Alaskan construction industry were hospitalized due to occupational injuries, with an average annual injury rate of 0.39 injuries/100 workers. Leading causes of injury included falls (48%) and machinery (15%). Thirty-four percent of the falls were from a building or structure, followed by falls from a ladder (24%). A fractured bone was the most common type of injury (57%). Information on hospitalized patients from the ATR focuses on the more severe and debilitating injuries, and provides valuable information for prioritizing injury prevention efforts in Alaska.
Keywords
Construction; Construction-industry; Construction-workers; Injuries; Traumatic-injuries; Injury-prevention; Epidemiology; Safety-research; Construction-equipment; Machine-operators; Region-10; Surveillance-programs;
Author Keywords: epidemiology; injuries; construction safety; injury prevention; safety; nonfatal injuries