Every year, governments across Canada publish workplace health and safety statistics.  These are typically a tabulation of injuries, occupational diseases and fatalities.   Statistics can be a helpful tool to observe trends and identify the nature of workplace incidents.  Here’s a look at some of the numbers from Alberta, as reported by Alberta Human Resources & Employment and the Workers Compensation Board.  Complete details can be found in the references cited below.

Fatalities
About every three days a worker dies in Alberta.  There were 124 workplace fatalities in 2004.  Workplace incidents accounted for 35 fatalities (28.2%), occupational disease for 55 deaths (44.4%), and another 34 fatalities (27.4%) were due to motor vehicle incidents.¹  These figures represent the number of fatality claims accepted by the WCB in 2004.  Occupational diseases are usually the result of prior exposures.

Lost Time Claims
In 2004, there were 35,119 accepted lost-time claims in Alberta.  These were injuries or cases of occupational disease which resulted in one or more days away from work, beyond the day of the incident. 

The lost-time claim rate takes into account the number of hours worked over the year.  For 2004 the lost-time claim rate in Alberta was 2.6 claims per 100 person-years worked, the lowest in the past ten years.

Lost-time claims are tabulated by the WCB in a number of different ways: by age, gender, occupation, industry, part of body injured, nature of injury or disease, type of event or exposure, and duration of disability.  Here are a few highlights from the 2004 summary, based on lost-time claims only²:

• About half of injuries and disease (49.2%) affected workers between 25 and 44 years of age.
• Two-thirds (66%) of claims were by men.
• A wide range of occupations were involved.  The most common occupations were truck drivers (7.7% of claims), welders and flame cutters (3.0%), and sales clerks and commodity workers (2.9%).
• By far, traumatic injuries and disorders such as sprains, strains, surface wounds and fractures were most common (88.9% of claims). 
• The trunk (includes back, spine, and spinal cord) was the most commonly injured body part (38.5% of claims), followed by the upper extremities with 24.5% of claims (wrists, hands, fingers).
• There were 977 claims for eye injuries (2.7% of claims).
• Overexertion was the most common event leading to injury (23.2% of claims).
• There were seven times as many claims due to assaults and violent acts as compared to fires and explosions (499 claims vs. 68 claims).
• About 20% of claims result in disability for 2 days or less.  23.4% of injuries and diseases result in more than a month away from work.

Lost-time claims tell only part of the story.  About three times as many medical aid injuries, which are not classified as lost-time, can occur in any given year.  According to WCB statistics, there were almost 118,000 medical aid injury claims in 2004.³ 

More Than Just Numbers
When considering these figures, it must be remembered that there are people behind the numbers – dead, injured or ill.   In the words of Guy Kerr, President and CEO of Alberta’s WCB: ‘These are not just statistics – they are our children, spouses, friends and neighbours’.³  We must not lose sight of that.

Useful References

1. Occupational Fatalities in Alberta: 1995 – 2004, Alberta Human Resources and Employment, Data Development and Evaluation, July 2005.

2. Occupational Injuries and Diseases in Alberta: Lost-Time Claims and Claim Rates - 2004 Summary, Alberta Human Resources and Employment, July 2005.

3. Workers Compensation Board of Alberta – 2004 Annual Report

4. Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada, www.awcbc.org; (Includes statistics from jurisdictions across Canada)

This article is provided for information only. Article Reproduced by Guzzardi & Associates with Permission. 
Copyright 2006 Escalade Services Group Inc.