BACKGROUND: The number of Hispanic workers increased by 58% while the number of Non-Hispanic workers increased by only 4% in Washington State from 2008-2014 according to Current Population Survey (CPS) administered by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS publishes national but not state-specific detailed fatality and injury statistics by ethnicity. Therefore, this study accessed multiple data sources to better understand the trends in Hispanic and Non-Hispanic worker fatality rate and injury characteristics resulting from traumatic workplace injuries in Washington State.
METHODS: Three primary data sources were used for this study. Traumatic work-related fatality data were obtained from the Washington State Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Program. Annual numbers of Hispanic and Non-Hispanic workers in Washington State were obtained from the CPS. Work-related traumatic injury data was obtained from Washington Workers’ Compensation (WC) State Fund system. Data from FACE and the CPS contained ethnicity while a language preference variable within WC records was used as a surrogate for ethnicity. Trends in the number and rate of traumatic fatalities were compared between Hispanic and Non-Hispanic workers over the period. Frequencies of traumatic work injuries were characterized and compared between workers designating Spanish as the preferred language and others.
RESULTS: An average of eight Hispanic workers and 58 Non-Hispanic workers died annually. The number of fatalities among Hispanic workers was lower than for Non-Hispanic workers for all years while the fatality rate was higher for Hispanic workers for all but one year. By industry, 45% of Hispanic workers died in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting. Of these, 67% died in crop farming, 21% in logging and forest products, and 12% in animal farming and fishing. By incident type, 30% of Hispanic worker deaths involved machinery, 21% involved motor vehicles, and 15% were struck by objects. Nearly 70% of machinery-related deaths involved tractors. During the same period, 3059 workers who designated Spanish as their preferred language suffered traumatic work-related injuries. Among the injured, 38% worked in agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting and 22% in construction. Falls accounted for approximately half of all injuries in the two industries and were the most frequent incident type overall.
CONCLUSIONS: Work-related traumatic injuries and fatalities are distributed differently for the rapidly growing population of Hispanic versus Non-Hispanic workers by industry, occupation, and incident type. Understanding where and how fatalities and injuries occur is essential to targeting injury prevention efforts among Hispanic and other workers.