Document 6RL0kDbyy5jDReR5kKJJQ2vj1

Office Safety LEADING ACCIDENT TYPES OFFICE EMPLOYEES COMPARED WITH OTHER INJURED WORKERS 111 364 FALL OR SLIP 474 20.8 STRAIN OR OVEREXERTION 138 189 239 STRUCK BY OR STRIKING AGAINST 164 17 5 27.4 | MOVING MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENT CAUGHT IN OR BETWEEN KIEFER STUDY CALIFORNIA STUDY OFFICE EMPLOYEES ALL OTHER WORKERS ____ I________ 0 10 20 30 40 Per Cent of Total Number of Injured Workers Fig 15-2 --A comparison of the California study with the Equit able study, and of office employees with all other workers 50 example, paid out $102,000 over eight years at one facility just for injuries incurred by people falling out of chairs Approximately 25,000 people worked at the plant, on the average, and more than half were office work ers Fourteen chair accidents occurred, and the two worst totaled $97,000 Studies made by the State of California Department of Industrial Relations, and by Norvm C Kiefer, M D, Chief Medical Director, Equitable Life Assurance Society of the U S (see "References"), show that this is not an isolated incident The California State Department of In dustrial Relations analyzed reports filed by more than 3000 California employers (employ ing more than one million office workers) on disabling injunes to employees during 1959 When extrapolated to nationwide scale, onthe-job office accidents would annually amount to about 40,000 disabling injuries at a direct cost (indemnity benefits and medical expenses) of about $100 million (This figure does not include any indirect costs for em ployers, workers, or the nation ) "Office worker" is defined as (m the California study) "a person primarily engaged in performing clencal, administrative, or professional tasks indoors in an office at his employer's place of business " This defini tion would not cover salespersons, claims adjusters, social workers, medical and teach- 374