Worker Memorial Day recognizes the individuals who died or experienced injuries or illnesses in the workplace. This year, Worker Memorial Day occurs on Tuesday, April 28. To honor this day, the Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (P2R) Consortium will promote awareness by sharing data that describe the tragic number of fatal work injuries (5,486 in 2022), nonfatal work injuries (4 million each year), and work-related illnesses (50,000 each year) in the United States. Additionally, the P2R Consortium will describe one solution to prevent future occupational fatalities: safety training for workers and employers.

In 2022, one worker dies from a work-related injury every 96 minutes. High risk industries included:

·        Transportation and material moving: 1,620 fatalities

·        Construction and extraction worker: 1,056 fatalities

Also in 2022, workers experienced:

·        18.6% increase in fatalities involving exposure to extreme temperatures

·        2.3 million nonfatal injuries, an increase of 4.5% from 2021

·        460,700 nonfatal illnesses, an increase of 26.1% from 2021

To combat these trends, the P2R Consortium, with its team of dedicated safety professionals and risk managers – and guided by an engaged advisory board – empowers workers with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to mitigate workplace hazards and promotes safe work environments by using tools, techniques, training. The P2R Consortium was established in 2010 and, over the last 14 years, has trained 95,889 workers in 1,803 courses totaling 12,444.5 contact hours of training. Furthermore, as an awardee of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Training Program (WTP) award, the P2R Consortium plays a part in a collective mission aimed at worker safety, alongside fellow NIEHS WTP awardees. Working in collaboration with other awardees, the NIEHS WTP has provided training to over 5 million workers in the United States and surrounding territories since it was established in 1987. To learn more, please visit https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/about_wetp.

REFERENCES

Department of Labor (DOL)) Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2022). Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary, 2022. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cfoi.nr0.htm

International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. Workers’ Memorial Day. https://uaw.org/health-safety/worker-memorial-day/

The National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). (n.d.). About the Worker Training Program (WTP). https://www.niehs.nih.gov/careers/hazmat/about_wetp

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). (2023). Workers Memorial Day. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/workmemorial/default.html

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. (n.d.). Workers Memorial Day. https://aflcio.org/about-us/conferences-and-events/workers-memorial-day

National Safety Council (NSC) Work-related Incidence Rate Trends. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/work/industry-incidence-rates/work-related-incident-rate-trends/

Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (n.d.). Worker Memorial Day. https://www.osha.gov/workers-memorial