Health matters: keeping your workplace safe makes a difference in employee morale and the bottom line.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa

Everyone knows that working on a fishing boat can be dangerous. Standing on slippery decks, lifting and hauling heavy catches, and dealing with dramatically changing weather can lead to debilitating injuries/or those who work unheard. But what about employees who work in offices, or in stores, or at construction sites? Do they need to be worried about workplace safety? And should their employers be concerned about the cost of workers' comp?

The answer is yes. According to a 2003 report on safety in Alaska's workplaces, entitled "Occupational Injury and Illness" by labor economists Kevin Virden and Dean Rasmussen, a total of 15,500 nonfatal injuries and illnesses occurred in Alaska's private-sector workplace in 2001. This equates to an illness and in jury rate of 8.3 cases per 100 full-time workers, compared to a national incident rate of 5.7 cases per 100 workers.

Incidence rates in the manufacturing field, which includes seafood and wood processing, were twice as high as the national rates; the second highest incidence rate was seen in the construction field, with 12.5 cases per 100 workers. Surprisingly, mining showed the lowest injury and illness rate of all major industries in Alaska in 2001, a fact that is credited to stringent safety policies in the state's mining and oil extraction industries.

"The kinds of injuries that doctors see depends on where they work," explained Dr. John Nolte, owner of Hill side Family and Occupational Medicine in Anchorage, which provides a comprehensive array of occupational services. "While most of the occupational injuries that we see are related to the construction field, clinics in Seward and Homer see more commercial fishing injuries. Those tend to lead the pack in terms of occupational injuries."

Those who work in less physical industries are not immune from harm either. According to the "Occupational injury and Illness Report," Alaska's illness and injury incidence rates were higher than national incidence rates in all fields studied, including transportation, communications and utilities; wholesale and retail trade; finance, insurance and real estate; and services.

THE COST TO EMPLOYERS

When businesses look at the cost-effectiveness of creating a safer work place, they often think in terms of what one employee's catastrophic injury or illness could do to their bottom line. According to Sue Johnson, certified occupational health nurse and president of Aurora Environmental & Safety Inc., it is the...