OSHA Releases Workplace Injury and Illness Information

Jan. 27, 2010
For the first time, OSHA has made the work-related injury and illness data collected from more than 80,000 employers from 1996 to 2007 available in a searchable online database, allowing the public to look at establishment or industry-specific injury and illness data.

The workplace injury and illness data is available at http://www.osha.gov/pls/odi/establishment_search.html as well as http://www.data.gov.

OSHA uses the data to calculate injury and illness incidence rates to guide its strategic management plan and to focus its Site Specific Targeting (SST) Program, which the agency uses to target its inspections.

“Making injury and illness information available to the public is part of OSHA’s response to the administration’s commitment to make government more transparent to the American people,” said David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. “This effort will improve the public's accessibility to workplace safety and health data and ensure the agency can function more effectively for American workers.”

Information available at the http://www.data.gov and http://www.osha.gov Web sites includes an establishment’s name, address, industry, associated Total Case Rate (TCR), Days Away, Restricted, Transfer (DART) case rate and the Days Away From Work (DAFWII) case rate. The data is specific to the establishments that provided OSHA with valid data through the 2008 data collection (collection of CY 2007 data). This database does not contain rates calculated by OSHA for establishments that submitted suspect or unreliable data.

The Data.gov site provides expanded public access to valuable work force related data generated by the executive branch of the federal government. Although the initial launch of Data.gov provides a limited portion of the rich variety of federal datasets presently available, the public is invited to participate in shaping its future by suggesting additional datasets and site enhancements to provide seamless public access and use of federal data.

More information about the Department of Labor’s Open Government Web site is available at http://www.dol.gov/open/, where visitors can find links to the latest data sets, ways to connect with Department staff and information about providing public input that will make the site and its work more useful and engaging.

About the Author

Laura Walter

Laura Walter was formerly senior editor of EHS Today. She is a subject matter expert in EHS compliance and government issues and has covered a variety of topics relating to occupational safety and health. Her writing has earned awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), the Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) and APEX Awards for Publication Excellence. Her debut novel, Body of Stars (Dutton) was published in 2021.

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