New OHS stats released

Source: Safety Snippets

The latest OHS statistics have just been released by Safe Work Australia in its Compendium of Workers' Compensation Statistics Australia 2008-09. A summary of the key findings include:

How many:
128 735 serious workers' compensation claims in 2008-09.

Sex:
Men were almost twice more likely to be injured than female employees. There were 8.8 serious claims per million hours worked by male employees, compared to 6.4 serious claims per million hours worked by female employees.

Industry:
Employees in Agriculture, forestry & fishing sustained the highest incidence rate of all industries: 25.2 serious claims per 1000 employees, nearly twice the national rate. Transport & storage employees experienced 25.0 serious claims per 1000 employees, while there were 23.4 in Manufacturing and 21.8 in Construction.

Nature of injury or disease:
Two-thirds of all serious claims were the result of injury with Sprains & strains of joints & adjacent muscles alone accounting for 43% of all serious claims.

Mechanism of injury or disease:
Manual handling mechanisms (Muscular stress while lifting objects and Muscular stress while handling objects) resulted in 33% of all serious claims. Falls (from a height on the same level) accounted for 20% of all serious claims.

Location of injury or disease:
The Back was the location on the body that was most often injured, accounting for 22% of all serious claims. Other common locations were Hand, fingers & thumb (13%), Shoulder (9%) and Knee (9%).