US Workplace Injury Rate Unchanged; NIOSH Awards $1.5 Million for Research

U.S. workplace injury rate remained unchanged in 2019

Private industry employers reported 2.8 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2019, unchanged from 2018, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. 

In 2019, the incidence rate of total recordable cases (TRC) in private industry was 2.8 cases per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers – the same rate reported in 2018 and 2017. 

The incidence rate of days away from work (DAFW) cases was 0.9 cases per 100 FTE workers and the incidence rate of days of job transfer and restriction only (DJTR) cases was 0.7 cases per 100 FTE workers – again, the same rates reported in 2018. 

There were 888,220 nonfatal injuries and illnesses that caused a private industry worker to miss at least one day of work in 2019, essentially unchanged from 2018. 

NIOSH awards $1.5 million for research to reduce exposures to workplace hazards through robotic technology

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded $1.5 million over three years to the University of Illinois at Chicago and Worcester Polytechnic Institute to fund projects aimed at reducing workers’ exposures to hazards through the development and use of collaborative robots, or co-robots, according to Robotics Tomorrow.

CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) partnered with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund studies of co-robots in the workplace through NSF’s National Robotics Initiative 2.0. The Initiative supports research in the U.S. that will accelerate the development and use of co-robots, an emerging robotic technology that complements, not replaces, human workers. Co-robots work alongside people or other robots and can help improve worker safety.

 “The future of work includes a workplace where robots work in tandem with, or are even worn by, human workers,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “This important research will help guide the development and use of co-robots that can help minimize health and safety risks to workers.”