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Oil and Gas Industry Fatal and Nonfatal Occupational Injuries


Oil and gas industries are frequently in the news. Much of the time this
news is related to changes in prices of oil and gas, which affect most
consumers in one way or another. Another less frequent subject of media
attention is when disasters strike, as in the offshore oil drilling
platform explosion and fire on April 20, 2010, and previous incidents
such as the Clearbrook, Minnesota pipeline fire in 2007 and the Texas
City, Texas refinery explosion in 2005.
According to the North American Industry Classification System, the oil
and gas extraction industry is classified in mining, as all mining
industries are focused on extracting natural resources from the earth.
Drilling oil and gas wells and support activities for oil and gas
operations are classified under support activities for mining. Fatal
injury data include oil and gas extraction, drilling oil and gas wells,
and support activities for oil and gas extraction. Nonfatal injury and
illness data only include drilling oil and gas wells.
Occupational injuries and fatalities associated with fires and
explosions are rare events. The overall rate of injuries and illnesses
with days away from work due to fires and explosions in all industries
was 0.2 per 10,000 full-time workers in 2008, composed of 2,320 cases
with days away from work. There were 174 fatal injuries due to fires and
explosions in 2008, 18 of which were in the oil and gas industry1 .
Fatal Work Injuries
A total of 120 fatal work injuries occurred in the oil and gas
extraction industry in 2008. The three most frequent fatal events in
2008 were transportation incidents (41 percent), contact with objects
and equipment (25 percent), and fires and explosions (15 percent). The
number of fatal work injuries associated with fires and explosions over
the past five years ranged from 10 fatalities in 2007 to 21 fatalities
in 2006. In 2008, there were 18 fatalities.
Of the transportation incidents in 2008, three-quarters involved highway
incidents. There were four fatal work injuries where a pedestrian was
struck by a vehicle or mobile equipment and five aircraft fatal work
injuries in 2008. Workers who were fatally injured after being struck by
objects and equipment accounted for 22 of the 30 fatal work injuries
involving contact with objects and equipment.
In 2008, multiple-fatal work injury events accounted for 24 worker
deaths in 10 different incidents. More than half of these deaths were
caused by transportation events, while a third were from fires and
explosions.
Men accounted for all of these fatal work injuries in 2008. Workers age
25 to 34 incurred the most fatal work injuries (48 fatalities or 40
percent in 2008). The majority of the workers were White, non-Hispanic
(75 percent), while 17 percent were Hispanic or Latino2 . Ten fatally
injured workers were foreign born in 2008.
The three states with the most oil and gas extraction industry fatal
work injuries in 2008 were Texas (41 fatal work injuries), Oklahoma (21
fatal work injuries), and Louisiana (13 fatal work injuries). Over the
five-year period of 2004-2008, Oklahoma fatal work injuries in the
industry have increased 91 percent, while Texas has increased by 21
percent and Louisiana by 30 percent.
Support activities for oil and gas operations (NAICS 213112) account for
about half of fatal work injuries from 2004 to 2008 in oil and gas
industries on average, with 69 fatal work injuries recorded in 2008.
Drilling oil and gas wells (NAICS 213111) averaged 34 fatal work
injuries over the five-year period, with 37 percent of fatal work
injuries resulting from contact with objects of equipment. Oil and Gas
Extraction (NAICS 211111) had an average of 21 fatal work injuries.
Nonfatal Injuries
Drilling oil and gas wells (NAICS 213111) is a distinct industry from
oil and gas production, and is classified under support activities for
mining. Establishments in this industry are primarily engaged in
drilling oil and gas wells for others on a contract or fee basis. This
industry includes contractors that specialize in spudding in, drilling
in, redrilling, and directional drilling.
From 2003 to 2007, the most recent data available for drilling oil and
gas wells, the number of total recordable cases of nonfatal injuries and
illnesses ranged between 2,400 in 2003 and 4,700 in 2005, with 2007
having 4,200 cases. The rate of injuries and illnesses ranged from 4.0
per 100 full-time workers in 2003 to 6.8 in 2004, with a rate of 4.6 in
2007. This is a little higher than the rate of 4.2 per 100 full-time
workers for all industries.
The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses collects case and
demographic information on cases with days away from work. These are
presumed to be the most severe cases. The rate of these cases in
drilling oil and gas wells ranged from 1.5 in 2003 to 2.8 in 2004. The
most recent rate was 1.7 per 100 full-time workers in 2007.
The most recent data show that the affected workers in this industry are
overwhelmingly men (all of 2007 cases with days away from work affected
men), and where race was reported, mostly white (74 percent of cases
that reported race).
Median days away from work are a key measure of severity of injuries and
illnesses. In 2007, the drilling oil and gas wells industry had a
median of 30, much higher than the median for all industries of 7. One
reason for the high median days away from work is that 25 percent of
injuries and illnesses with days away from work are fractures, which
typically have a long recovery time. Commonly, workers are injured by
being struck by objects (32 percent of cases) or being caught in
objects, equipment or material (21 percent of cases).
More information on injuries, illnesses, and fatalities in the oil and gas extraction industries is available at [ندعوك للتسجيل في المنتدى أو التعريف بنفسك لمعاينة هذا الرابط] or (202) 691-6170.

Source


Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), April 22, 2010. Fatality data are from
the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Nonfatal injury and illness
data are from the Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.


Note


1 Fatal injury numbers for oil and gas extraction industries are based
on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), 2002 and
include NAICS 211 (oil and gas extraction), NAICS 213111 (drilling oil
and gas wells), and NAICS 213112 (support activities for oil and gas
operations). These include both public and private sector.
2 Persons identified as Hispanic of Latino may be of any race.