Every year, thousands of California workers are injured on the job or become ill as a result of health hazards at work. These injuries and illnesses result in substantial costs. California's workers' compensation benefits paid in 2013 alone totaled $12.1 billion.
Worker injuries and illnesses are preventable; having the necessary data to understand them is the first step to helping workers stay safe and healthy. The California Department of Public Health's Occupational Health Branch calculates Occupational Health Indicators for California each year and has recently released a reportwith data from 2008 to 2013.
Important findings from the report:
- In 2013, 396 workers died from injuries sustained on the job, and Hispanics accounted for 49% of the deaths.
- Each year more than 100,000 workers lose work time from job injuries, and about 20,000 are hospitalized.
- Over 1.7 million workers are employed in high-risk occupations where the rate of work-related injuries is more than twice the overall rate for U.S. industries.
- Nearly 950,000 working adults report that their asthma was caused or made worse by their exposures at work, representing a significant opportunity to reduce the overall burden of asthma.
Please download the full report and share it widely with your networks to join our effort of making the workplace a safer and healthier place for all Californians.
