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Occupational Hazards and Injuries
Globally each year, over 350,000 workers die from occupational injuries and 2.2 million workers die from occupational injuries and illnesses combined. Injuries in general rank among the highest sources of the global burden of illness. Most importantly, many are preventable. Our department is focusing on determining the causes of injuries and devising strategies to prevent them in some of the most hazardous industries, including construction, meatpacking, and agriculture.
One of our projects has identified specific transient exposures in the meat processing environment that increase the risk for laceration injuries. By identifying transient risk factors, interventions that modify these risk factors are being devised so that work processes can change to ultimately reduce the rate of injuries among workers.