1. Introduction
On-the-job accidents in the United States are a serious
occupational problem. No one expects to be injured, much
less killed on the job. Yet each calendar day on average in
the United States, more than 15,000 workers sustain on-thejob
injuries or illnesses and 17 are killed. Electrical incidents
cause an average of 13 days away from work injuries1
and nearly one fatality every day.
1.1. Data sources
The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics
(BLS) compiles the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
(CFOI) from death certificates and other information for U.S.
workers killed on the job.2 The 1992–1998 CFOI database
contains information on 43,921 occupational fatalities from
all injury-related causes.3 Such information includes incident
narratives, the source of injury, victim’s occupation, location
of the incident, work activity at the time of death, and other
details. By analyzing such objective information, a reasonable
understanding of most incidents can be achieved.
Analogous to CFOI, BLS’s Survey of Occupational Illnesses
and Injuries (SOII) provides an estimate of the more than five
million nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses that
occur in the United States each year. A statistical estimate
based on a stratified sample,4 the SOII does not contain
narrative or work activity information on individual nonfatal
incidents. Recent upgrades to the BLS’s online search
capability for both CFOI and SOII allow improved limited
public access to selected U.S. occupational injury and illness
information.5 The SOII information presented in this paper