In an analysis released before publication on February 13, Dr. David Michaels, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) longest-serving administrator (from 2009 to 2017), suggested that using injury data from OSHA and other sources can help reduce the risk of work-related injuries. Michaels is now a professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University.

Insights from OSHA “data sets are invaluable for injury prevention,” Michaels said in an accompanying press release. “They enable businesses to benchmark their safety experience against other firms in their industry, workers to choose employment in safer workplaces, and researchers to better understand injury causation.”

The two most extensive collections of aggregate injury and illness data—the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) and Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII)—issued by the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) can indicate trends in fatal and nonfatal injuries by demographic, industry, and occupation but are less useful for researchers looking at causation. The SOII is a survey of a sample identified by the BLS. The bureau also diligently protects employers’ confidentiality, limiting researchers’ access to identifying information. The value of workers’ compensation data collected by more than 50 state workers’ compensation agencies is limited because the data isn’t uniform across agencies, according to Michaels.

Researchers have used OSHA fatality data reported by employers, combined with case data from other sources, to examine risk factors in high-hazard industries like arboricultural operations, oil and gas extraction, and tree felling.

OSHA’s Severe Injury Reporting program (employers have been required to report amputations and worker hospitalizations within 24 hours since 2015) has produced valuable data for researchers looking for causation in specific industries and firms. Researchers have also used the program data in studies on the epidemiology of specific hazards or occupations.

OSHA developed an Injury Tracking Application to facilitate the collection of employer injury and illness summary reports. In December, OSHA publicly released detailed, establishment-level case data collected through the Injury Tracking Application. The agency also released a “Work Related Injury & Illness Summary” report, which included tables of injury/illness case characteristics, top occupational groups reporting injuries and illnesses, and a breakdown of injury and illness case types by industrial sector for calendar year 2023. The release includes data on more than 890,000 workplace injuries and illnesses at more than 91,000 workplaces.

According to Michaels' article, the granular nature of data from so many establishments allows researchers to perform more in-depth analyses of injuries and illnesses. Michaels suggested linking the Injury Tracking Application data set with data sets focused on union membership, management structure and characteristics, the amount of overtime work, corporate financial health, ownership (public vs. private companies), chemical emissions, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violations, and other variables.

Michaels coauthored “OSHA Injury Data: An Opportunity for Improving Work Injury Prevention” with Gregory R. Wagner, MD, adjunct professor of environmental health at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The American Journal of Public Health released Michaels’ and Wagner’s article online ahead of print publication.