Injury mortality among employees of Los Alamos National Laboratory: A pilot study
Although injuries compose the fourth leading cause of death among the US population, little is known about this important cause of death. For this reason, we investigated mortality from injuries among a cohort of 23,217 Los Alamos National Laboratory employees. Characteristics of Laboratory employees dying from injuries were described and compared with those dying from noninjury causes. Special emphasis was placed on comparing job-related deaths with non-job-related deaths. A comparison of injury deaths with noninjury deaths showed no differences in sex or race. Significant differences were observed for education, duration of employment, and age at death, with persons dying from injury better educated, more likely to be employed at least one year, and more likely to die at an earlier age. When education was examined further, we found significantly more suicides and air/space accidents among college-educated members of the cohort and more motor vehicle fatalities among persons without a college degree. In this cohort, we identified 45 work-related deaths (all white male), 29 of which occurred during employment with the Los Alamos National Laboratory. A comparison of job-related injury deaths with non-job-related deaths, showed no differences in education. Suicides and motor vehicle accidents were predominant among non-job-related deaths, whereas the categories of other accidents (explosions, electrocutions, machinery accidents, and radiation accidents) and air/space accidents were th leading causes among the deaths on the job. We observed no differences in job classification when job-related deaths were compared with non-job-related deaths. 5 refs., 19 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 7163702
- Report Number(s):
- LA-10812-MS; ON: DE87003803
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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