Report: Job-Related Injury, Illness Costly

Job-related injuries and illnesses are more common than most people believe, costing the nation far more than AIDS or Alzheimer’s disease and at least as much as cancer or heart disease, a new report says in today’s issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The researchers combined many sources of government and other data. In 1992, about 66,800 Americans died and about 14 million were hurt or ill from work-related causes, said the researchers, led by J. Paul Leigh of San Jose State University in California. Total direct and indirect costs were $171 billion in 1992 ($468 million a day).