ABSTRACT
During the period 1986-1990, the U.S. construction industry had an average annual employment of 5.2 million workers [1-3]. e occupational injury and illness rate per 100 full-time construction workers per year was estimated to be 15.2 cases in 1986 with a steady decline to 14.2 cases in 1990. e corresponding lost workday incidence rate per 100 workers during this period was 6.9 in 1986 and 6.7 in 1990. Although slightly in decline during 1986-1990, the construction industry incidence rates were still the highest among the major industries (Table 24.1) [1-3]. In addition, during the period 1980-1990, the U.S. construction industry had an overall fatality rate of 25.6 per 100,000 full-time workers. is rate was more than 3.5 times the occupational fatality rate for all other industries in the United States for the same period [4].
