Open AccessOCCUPATIONAL ACCIDENTS AND INJURIES: THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL DATA BANK
Author(s) -
Wigglesworth E.C.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1985.tb00534.x
Subject(s) - occupational safety and health , plea , scope (computer science) , hazard , commission , state (computer science) , accident (philosophy) , capital (architecture) , constitution , data collection , actuarial science , forensic engineering , business , political science , engineering , computer science , law , sociology , history , social science , philosophy , chemistry , organic chemistry , epistemology , algorithm , archaeology , programming language
Although occupational hazard data are published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in each State capital, all these State collections are idiosyncratic. The consequent lack of uniformity effectively thwarts any but the simplest and most basic national studies of occupational health and safety. In this paper, the author examines the differences in definition, scope, coverage, source and categorisation of the various collections. In addition, he suggests that attempts to tabulate accident causes, variously presented in the different State collections, are wasteful of resources in preparation and counterproductive in their conceptualisation of the accident phenomenon. After reviewing some potential data sources for use as the basis of a national data set, he recommends that compensation data be developed for this purpose. The paper ends with a plea for the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission to use the statistics power of the Constitution to develop such a national collection.