• occupational injury

This issue of Injury Prevention contains three articles about work related injury, the most for any regular issue of the journal. Their inclusion is part of the increasing recognition of occupational injury prevention as part of the mainstream injury prevention movement. It also puts the journal in the forefront as the leading multidisciplinary journal in the field of injury prevention, a direct result of the decision several years ago to expand its focus to cover all injuries, not just those to children and adolescents. Since then, in addition to the occupational injury supplement to the September 2001 issue,¹ there have been seven other work related articles covering the spectrum from hand injury prevention among sugar cutters in India to fatal electrocutions in the US.

Injuries off the job are also receiving increasing attention by industry because of their impact on the workplace, both in terms of cost and lost productivity. For example, the National Safety Council estimates that for every worker killed on the job in the US, eight workers are killed off the job at home or on the highway.² The workplace is also adversely impacted by injuries to family members. The costs of medical care and time off work to care for injured family members are largely paid for by employers, particularly when health insurance is provided through the workplace. It is estimated, for example that 63% of all unintentional injury deaths are to workers or their immediate family, most of which occur off the job. Unfortunately similar data are not available for non-fatal injuries.