12.3.2: Statistics are People
We must remember that behind every statistic are the people that these injuries and illnesses happened to. Lives are lost, or permanently changed. The ability to work, earn a living, or even physically move and perform activities of daily living (ADLs) is disrupted by non-fatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace. When people get hurt or sick enough from their job that they can no longer work, they end up with a permanent disability that often forces them to spend much more time and money getting treatment, and substantially affects their socioeconomic status and quality of life. Perhaps the biggest tragedy is that many of these incidents can be prevented with proper safety and health policies and procedures in place. When young workers are injured or killed on the job it is particularly tragic; a young life was cut short, or a young person must live with a disability for the rest of their lives.
The OSHA website has several such stories of preventable workplace injuries and deaths to young people. Teenagers working in a grain silo were caught and pulled into the grain, suffocating them - they were not wearing protective harnesses at the time. A young construction worker was cleaning a cement mixer, and got pulled in by the paddles, while a nearby coworker didn’t know how to shut it off. A teen performing routine pH testing on a swimming pool was electrocuted by the machinery and the wet concrete. Falls are the most common cause of injury and death on construction sites, and people often lose fingers or limbs when operating heavy machinery (OSHA, n.d.-b). While these are likely meant as cautionary tales, they also serve to personalize these incidents and give a voice to the victim. Workers are people, whose health and safety matters more than just the dollar amount of the worker’s compensation claim.