PART ONE The data speak but what do they tell us?

Harnessing the potential that occupational injury data offer for assisting in prevention is clearly a key requirement in the field. Many of the methodological problems involved have been discussed in the literature (e.g. Pollack and Keimig, 1987; Driscoll, 1993). The fundamental expectations for injury data are that they should provide accurate information about the nature, extent and distribution of the problem. The chapters in this part consider aspects of using routinely collected data to describe the problem more effectively and to provide possible directions for preventive efforts.