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National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2004

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Department of Labor, recently published preliminary reports on injury, illness, and fatality data. Complete reports are available on the BLS Web site at: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshcfoi1.htm. The following is a summary of the 2004 data.

A total of 5,703 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2004, an increase of 2 percent from the revised total of 5,575 fatal work injuries reported for 2003.

Despite the increase, the total for 2004 was the third lowest annual figures recorded by the fatality census, which has been conducted each year since 1992. The rate at which fatal work injuries occurred in 2004 was 4.1 per 100,000 workers, up slightly from a rate of 4.0 per 100,000 workers in 2002 and 2003. The increase in the fatality rate in 2004 was the first since 1994 when the rate was 5.3 fatalities per 100,000 workers.

Key findings of the 2004 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:

• Fatal work injuries among Hispanic workers were up 11 percent in 2004 after declining the previous two years.
  
  
• The number of fatal work injuries among older workers (55 years of age and older) rose 10 percent in 2004, but fatalities among younger workers (16 to 24 years of age) declined.
  
  
• Workplace homicides were down sharply in 2004 to the lowest level ever recorded by the fatality census.
  
  
• Fatal work injuries resulting from being struck by an object rose 12 percent in 2004, and overtook workplace homicide as the third most frequent type of fatal event.
  
  
• Fatal falls increased by 17 percent to a new series high, led by increases in the number of fatal falls from ladders and from roofs.
  
  
• The number of fatal work injuries in the construction sector rose 8 percent in 2004, but because of employment increases in this sector, the fatality rate for construction was not significantly higher than the rate reported in 2003.
  
  
• Twenty-seven states reported higher numbers of fatalities in 2004 than in 2003.