REVIEW QUESTIONS
What are the leading causes of death in the United States?
Heart disease
Cancer
Stroke
Accident
When the overall cost of an accident is calculated, what elements make up the cost?
After the overall cost of an accident is calculated, the elements of costs are lost wages,
medical expenses, insurance administration, fire-related losses, motor vehicle property damage,
and indirect cost.
What are the five leading causes of accidental deaths in the United States?
Motor vehicle accidents include deaths resulting from accidents involving electrically or
mechanically powered vehicles on or off the road. There are 47,000 motor vehicle deaths in the
United States in a year.
Falls include all deaths from falls except those associated with transport vehicles. Falls
constitute approximately 13,000 deaths in the United States in a typical year.
Poisoning is divided into poisoning by liquids and solids such as ingestion of medicine,
drug, liquid poison, or mushrooms and poisoning by vapors and gases such as incomplete
combustion of carbon monoxide. The first category contributes to 6000 deaths, while the second
contributes to 1000 deaths in a year.
Drowning includes non-work-related and work-related drownings but excluding natural
disasters or floods. It constitutes 5000 deaths in a year.
Fire-related injuries include deaths from burns, asphyxiation, and falling objects in a fire.
There are 4000 fire-related deaths in the United States in a year.
What are the leading causes of death in the United States of people between the ages of 25
and 44?
The leading cause of death in the United States of people between the ages of 25 and 44
are accidents, cancer, motor vehicles, heart disease, poison (solid, liquid), drowning, fall, and
fire-related deaths.
Explain how today’s rate of accidental work deaths compares with the rate in the early
1900s.
Today’s accidental work deaths per 100,000 population have declined by 81% than in the
1900s from 21 to 4. The accident rate has also decreased over the years because there has been
an increase in the amount of attention given to workplace safety and health.
What are the five leading causes of work deaths?
The five leading causes of work deaths are motor vehicle-related, falls, electric current,
drowning, and fire-related incidents.
What are the five leading causes of work injuries by type of accident?
Overexertion is injuries resulting from employees working beyond their physical limits.
Impact accidents, which involve a worker being struck against or by an object.
Fall
Bodily reaction to chemicals
Compression
When death rates are classified by industry type, what are the three leading industry
types?
Mining/ quarrying
Agriculture
Construction
Rank the following body parts according to injury frequency from highest to lowest neck,
fingers, trunk, back, and eyes.
The rank of body parts according to injury frequency from highest to lowest is back,
fingers, trunk, eyes, and neck.
Explain the reasons for high accident rates in developing countries.
Accidents are high in developing countries because these countries respond to the
pressures of global competition without first putting a safety and health infrastructure in place,
such as recordkeeping, training, and regulations.
KEY TERMS & CONCEPTS
Accident prevention is the act of preventing an event that may cause injury or loss to a
person. Despite history viewing accident prevention as too costly, it should be implemented
since accidents are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States.
Accident rates are an indicator of safety and health state at the workplace. It provides an
outline for measuring to what extent are workers are protected from work-related hazards at their
workplace. The accident rate decreases when workplace safety and health have been increased.
A work injury is an illness or injury aggravated or caused by exposure or events in the
work environment. Some of the leading causes of work injuries are overexertion, impact
accidents, falls, bodily reaction, and compression.
Suffocation is death resulting from the ingestion of an object that blocks the air passages,
for example, food. There are approximately 4000 suffocation deaths in the United States in a
typical year.
Safety and health professionals are individuals who ensure the development and
implementation of safety and health measures in the workplace. When the professionals fully
understand workplace accidents and their effect on the industry, they will play a more effective
role in keeping labor and management focused on safety and health.
Property damage is injuries on non-personnel items, equipment, or facilities as a result
of an accident. An example is a chemical leak on a plantation due to negligence, willful
destruction, or an act of nature.
Natural disasters incidents prompted by nature such as tornadoes, floods, hurricanes,
and earthquakes. Despite natural disasters being more newsworthy than a workplace, their actual
impact is substantially less. For example, in the United States, there are less than 100 deaths a
year.
Medical expenses are money paid to cover the costs of emergency medical response and
follow-up treatment when an employee is injured. Examples of medical expenses include
wheelchairs, crutches, over-the-counter drugs, and prescriptions.
Indirect costs are costs that are not directly indefinable with workplace accidents. These
costs are difficult to prepare for or calculate, thus being uninsured. For example, lost time by an
injured employee is not covered by workers' compensation insurance.
Lost wages are the amount that an employee could have earned had they not been
injured. For example, hourly wage, overtime, bonuses, sick days, and vacation days. It is
common in severely injured employees because they cannot perform their job duties while
recovering, therefore affecting their everyday and future lives.
