California Warehouse Industry Worker Injury Rates in the Occupational Health and Safety Administration's Injury...

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health and Safety
• Injury Surveillance
• Workplace Safety Data Analysis

Background:

• US occupational health surveillance relies on administrative data with underreporting and sampling limitations.
• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) initiated the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) in 2019 to collect establishment-level injury data.
• This study analyzes ITA data to characterize injuries within the California warehousing sector.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize injury trends in the California warehousing industry using newly available federal data.
• To assess the utility of the Injury Tracking Application (ITA) data for occupational safety research.
• To identify specific injury types and rates within the warehousing sector.

Main Methods:

• Utilized yearly Injury Tracking Application (ITA) data from 2018-2023.
• Cleaned data to exclude invalid records, focusing on California General Warehousing and Storage (GWS) establishments.
• Calculated annual rates of total reportable injuries and injuries requiring days of job transfer or restriction (DJTR).

Main Results:

• Total injury rates in California warehousing peaked in 2021 at 5.87 per 100 workers.
• While overall injury rates declined post-2021, DJTR rates in 2023 remained significantly higher than in 2018 (3.21 vs. 1.84 per 100 workers).
• Identified potential underreporting bias and challenges in precisely identifying warehouse establishments as key analytical limitations.

Conclusions:

• ITA data offer a valuable supplement to existing occupational safety data, despite inherent limitations like underreporting.
• Consistently elevated total and DJTR injury rates in California warehousing align with previous research findings.
• Expanded outreach and enforcement are recommended to enhance the health and safety of warehouse workers.