EAST LANSING, Mich. – As workers and public health professionals gather around the country April 28, Workers Memorial Day, to pay tribute to colleagues who have died on the job, a new report shows that the number of workers killed in job-related injuries remained relatively unchanged in 2003, the last year complete statistics were available.

The report, compiled by Michigan Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (MIFACE), a joint program of Michigan State University, the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth and Wayne State University, shows that 152 Michigan workers died from on-the-job injuries in 2003, up one from 151 in 2002, down from 174 in 2001 and 156 in 2000.

The report is released in conjunction with Workers Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor the approximately 6,000 workers who die from acute on-the-job injuries every year in the United States. Another 60,000 workers are estimated to die each year in the United States from cancer, lung disease and other illnesses from work-related exposures.

According to MIFACE, more than 90 percent of Michigan workers killed on the job in 2003 were males.Both the youngest death and oldest death occurred in the agricultural industry. The youngest death was that of a 13-year-old boy who died after becoming entangled in a tractor. The oldest was an 87-year-old farmer who was pinned between the steering wheel of his tractor and an enclosed auger while attempting to back his tractor into a storage area.

The most dangerous profession in 2003 was construction, as more than 22 percent of the deaths occurred in that field. Twenty-one percent of the deaths occurred in farming, and nearly 12 percent in transportation and warehousing. This was a particularly bad year for agriculture as the number of deaths was 32, up from 21 the previous year.

The causes of death were many and varied, including a farmer cleaning out a bulk milk tank who died from an asthma attack; a landscape worker crushed between the skid-steer lift arms and the skid-steer frame; a painter who fell 90 feet from an electric transmission tower; and a postal carrier who was rear-ended by a semi–truck.

“What’s really sad about this is that the vast majority of these deaths were preventable,” said Kenneth Rosenman, an MSU professor of medicine and director of MSU Occupational and Environmental Medicine.“Further efforts to investigate the circumstances leading to these deaths and disseminate information from what we learn are necessary to educate and, where applicable, recommend changes in regulations to prevent similar deaths from occurring in the future.”

MIFACE is a joint research program of MSU and Wayne State funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth Development is the umbrella organization coordinating the project. The purpose of MIFACE is to identify the types of industries and work situations in which workers are dying from acute traumatic incidents; identify the underlying causes of the work-related fatality; and disseminate information to reduce work-related fatalities.

For the complete 2003 report and other information, access the MIFACE section on the MSU Occupational and Environmental Medicine Web site at www.chm.msu.edu/oem

For additional information, contact Rosenman or Debra Chester at (517) 353-1846. For additional information about events on Worker Memorial Day, visit the Web at www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-22678_25488_28109-72045--,00.html