Effect of state workplace safety laws on occupational injury rates.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of four common types of mandatory state-level workplace safety regulations on injury severity rates during the period 1992 to 1997 for the manufacturing sector. The full Poisson regression model showed safety committee regulations to have a highly significant reducing effect on injury rates, chi 2 (1, n = 3286) = 10.1774, P = 0.0014. Safety program regulations were significant at the alpha = 0.10 level, chi 2 (1, n = 3286) = 3.5676, P = 0.0589. The effect of insurance carrier loss control regulations in the full model was nonsignificant. However, insurance carrier loss control regulations were highly significant (alpha = 0.01) in the final reduced model. Targeting initiatives were nonsignificant in both the full and reduced models (alpha = 0.05). The study results are important to state and federal agencies considering adopting workplace safety regulations that are similar to the four types evaluated in this study.
Smitha
M W
MW
Department of Environmental Health Science, School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. MattSmitha@Hotmail.Com
Kirk
K A
KA
Oestenstad
K R
KR
Brown
K C
KC
Lee
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SD
D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013219:State Government; D014478:Unemployment; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014489:United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration; D014942:Workers' Compensation / Q000191:economics; D017132:Workplace / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*