With the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently announcing its preliminary list for the top 10 most cited violations of 2019, many organizations are beginning to evaluate their own safety procedures and think about improvements for 2020.

Taking a holistic look at your environment, health and safety (EHS) programs is important for several reasons: Procedures and protocols may need to be updated, system-wide efficiencies can be identified, and new technologies can potentially be leveraged to improve compliance, reduce workplace injuries and illnesses, and keep costs low.

As you reassess your EHS program, here are 11 safety stats to consider for 2020:

Workplace injuries and fatalities

• There were 5,147 on-the-job fatalities in the United States in 2017. This equates to an average of 14 deaths every day (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• Fatalities in private mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction increased by 26% from 2017 to 2018 (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• A worker is injured every 7 seconds (National Safety Council)
• The top three workplace injuries resulting in days away from work cases (DAWC) are caused by overexertion, contact from objects or equipment, and slipping/falling (National Safety Council)
• The top five occupations with the highest number of injuries resulting in DAWC are (National Safety Council):
  1. Service
  2. Transportation/Shipping
  3. Manufacturing/Production
  4. Installation, Maintenance and Repair
  5. Construction

The cost of safety incidents

• The National Safety Council estimated that work-related injuries and deaths cost the nation, employers and individuals $161.5 billion in 2017 (National Safety Council)
• In its 2018 Workplace Safety Index, Liberty Mutual estimated that employers paid more than $1 billion per week in workers’ compensation for disabling, non-fatal workplace injuries in 2015 (OSHA)
• Workplace injuries resulted in 104 million lost production days in 2017 (National Safety Council)

Injury prevention and protocols

• The top four OSHA violations in 2019 were (OSHA):

• OSHA estimates that LOTO procedures prevent 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries annually (OSHA)
• Up to 10% of industrial safety incidents are believed to be related to failure to properly lock out equipment (OSHA)

You can view OSHA’s Top 10 Violations for 2019 in the infographic below (click to view full-screen or to download):

The bottom line

Accident and injury rates are still far too high, and it’s time to reevaluate your safety management processes and find ways to improve compliance. If you haven’t already, be sure to read our blog post on three ways technology improves safety management and procedural adherence to learn the best practices of some of the biggest manufacturing and industrial companies around the world.