ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the injury, illness, and disease outcome as a result of contact with a source of energy. The contact that leads to an exchange of energy can result in business interruption, damage to machinery, property, materials, and vehicles, or lead to personal loss in the form of injury or occupational disease to an employee. Occupational diseases normally manifest over a longer period than occupational injuries. In safety, most statistics concern injuries. Statistics based on injuries are also a traditional approach to justifying the need for better safety measures. Organizations that experience fewer injuries than others are lured into a false sense of security by assuming that they are safer. Most measurements using injuries are also based on the degree of severity of the injury and rely on the honesty of the reporting system. The number of injuries is normally compiled and expressed as a percentage, or number of injuries per million man-hours.
