Nature, incidence, and cause of work-related amputations in Minnesota

✍ Scribed by Debora Boyle; David Parker; Christina Larson; Luisa Pessoa-Brandão

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 130 KB
• Volume: 37
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-3586
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(200005)37:5<542::aid-ajim10>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Background The Minnesota Sentinel Event Noti®cation System for Occupational Risks (SENSOR) has collected data on the nature, incidence, and cause of work-related amputation injuries that have taken place since 1992. Methods SENSOR de®ned an amputation as any ®nger amputation or the loss of any other body part; 832 workers were identi®ed as having amputation injuries between 1994 and 1995 and 72% of these workers completed telephone interviews.

Results

The amputation injury rate for Minnesota workers was 39 per 100,000 workers, with agriculture and manufacturing having the highest rates. Sixty-six percent of the injuries involved one ®nger; 14% involved two or more ®ngers. Persons working with machinery reported 73% of the injuries. Conclusions A closer examination of the incidence and causes for amputation injuries shows that these were not random events. Reliance on human reactions to prevent injury is inadequate; therefore, additional research needs to be conducted. Am.