Analysis of data on industrial accidents related to stepladders

Abstract

In Japan, a number of fall accidents have been associated with equipment such as stepladders. In this study, industrial accident cases were investigated to understand the incidence of accidents caused by stepladders. A total of 34,195 industrial accidents resulting in at least a 4-day absence from work in 2006 (25.5% of the total industrial accidents) were analyzed based on casualty reports from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Each accident was classified by industry type, accident type, the number of absent days, and victim's age, sex, employment period, injury or disease type, and injured or disease-affected part. There were 992 stepladder-related accidents (6 were fatal accidents). The estimated annual number of stepladder-related accidents was 3,896 (24 were fatal accidents, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 3,657–4,135), which accounted for 2.9% of all accidents (95% CI: 2.7–3.1). Based on industry type, 45.5% of the stepladder-related accidents occurred in the construction industry, 15.5% in the manufacturing industry, and 12.3% in the commercial industry. Most of these accidents occurred among >49 years male workers in the construction and manufacturing industries, whereas two-third of these workers in the commercial industry were aged <49 years. A total of 68.6% of the workers sustained a fracture. The most commonly affected body parts were the lower (34.7%) and upper limbs (21.4%), and 64.9% of workers took a leave of absence for >31 days. For 18.4% of workers, the duration of employment at the time of the accident was <1 year; 27.6% of workers were employed for ≥20 years. These results indicate that further research should focus on the conditions that cause these accidents so that prevention strategies can be implemented to reduce the incidence of industrial accidents related to stepladders.