An Assessment of the Effects of Increased Regulatory Enforcement on Occupational Hearing Loss Workers' Compensation gon 1984-1998

Hearing loss from occupational exposures has been found to be a common and serious problem affecting workers. This paper examines the effect that increasing legislative enforcement of existing regulations has on improving worker safety.

Disabling and Fatal Occupational Claim Rates, Risks, and Costs in the Oregon Construction Industry 1990-1997

Occupational research has demonstrated construction to be among the most dangerous of all occupational industries. This study examines 20,680 accepted workers' compensation claims filed by Oregon construction workers over the period of 1990-1997. Injury rate estimates for occupations were calculated using Oregon employment data from the Current Population Survey. The estimated annual rate of lost-time claims was 3.5 per 100 workers annually (95% CI=2.8-4.2) with insulators having the highest rate and supervisors the lowest. The majority of claims, 3,940, were filed by laborers. Over 52% of all claims were filed by workers under 35 years of age, and over half the claimants had less than 1 year of tenure at the time of injury. There were 52 fatalities reported, representing a rate of 8.5 per 100,000 workers (95% CI = 8.1-8.9), of which 32.7% resulted from falls. The most frequently recorded nature of non-fatal injury was listed as a "sprain," and the most common body part injured was the back. The total costs of all claims was $208,537,120, averaging$10,084 per claim, and the average indemnity time per injury was 57.3 days, with female claimants having longer indemnity periods than males. The highest percentage of claims by weekday occurred on Mondays (21.5%), and subsequent analysis showed the highest odds ratio for time of accident, relative to the first hour on the job, occurred on the third hour of work (OR = 2.456, 95% CI = 2.452-2.460.Construction; Workers' Compensation; Occupational Safety; Fatalities; Injuries; Musculoskeletal Disorders; Surveillance

A Quantification and Risk Analysis of Occupational Burns: Oregon Workers' Compensation Claims 1990-1997

This study examined all accepted Oregon workers' compensation claims for occupational burn injuries over 1990-1997 (n = 3,158). The Current Population Survey (CPS) was used to derive employee population baselines for establishing rate estimates. It was estimated that the average occupational burn claim rate was 2.89 per 10,000 workers (95% C.I. = 2.76-3.02). The majority of claimants (71.7%) were males, the largest proportion (32.6%) were aged 25 years or under, and almost half (48.7%) had less than 1 year of job tenure. Costs averaged over $1.6 million annually. The average indemnity period was 16 days. Higher relative risks were found for evening workers (2.97, 95% C.I. = 2.96-2.98) and night workers (2.13, C.I. = 2.12-2.13) compared to day shift workers. Kitchen workers had the highest burn rate of all occupations with 62.5 per 10,000.burns, occupational burns, employee safety, Oregon, workers' compensation

IMPROVING THE RELEVANCE OF RESEARCH ON PRICE FORECASTING AND MARKETING STRATEGIES

Agricultural economists' research on price forecasting and marketing strategies has been used little by those in the real world. We argue that fresh approaches to research are needed. First, we argue that we need to adopt a new theoretical paradigm, noisy rational expectations. This paradigm suggests that gains from using price forecasting models with public data or from using a marketing strategy are not impossible, but any gains are likely to be small. We need to conduct falsification tests; to perform confirmation and replication; to adjust research to reflect structural changes, such as increased contracting; and always to conduct statistical tests. We also provide a modest agenda for changing our research and extension programs.Demand and Price Analysis, Marketing,

Occupational Vehicular Accidents: A Workers' Compensation Analysis of Oregon Truck Drivers 1990-1997

This study used workers' compensation data from Oregon from 1990-1997 to examine injuries due to vehicular accidents by truck drivers, and calculate rate estimates using baseline data derived from the U.S. Bureau of Census' Current Population Survey. During this period, 1,168 valid injury claims due to vehicular accidents were filed representing an accident rate of 50.3% (95% C.I. = 45.1-55.5) per 10,000 truck drivers annually. There were 19 work-related vehicular accident fatalities recorded in the data over the 8-year period. Of all claimants, males constituted the majority (80.7%), most were 35 years of age or younger (51.4%) and had less than 1 year of job tenure (51.0%). Truck driver injury rates due to vehicular accidents were lowest during the 6:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M. period. The average amount of compensable lost workdays per injury claim was 57.8 days, of which male claimants lost an average of 60.5 days of work and females lost an average of 46.9 days of work. The amount of lost work days due to vehicular accident increased with the claimant's age. A total of $11,642,635 was paid in claims for vehicular accidents of truck drivers in Oregon over the period examined, averaging$9,966.01 per claim. Sprains were the most frequently cited injury experienced from vehicular accidents.vehicular accidents, driving, truck drivers, workers' compensation, public health, workplace safety

A New Galaxy in the Local Group: the Antlia Dwarf Galaxy

We report the discovery of new member of the Local Group in the constellation of Antlia. Optically the system appears to be a typical dwarf spheroidal galaxy of type dE3.5 with no apparent young blue stars or unusual features. A color-magnitude diagram in I, V-I shows the tip of the red giant branch, giving a distance modulus of 25.3 +/- 0.2 (1.15 Mpc +/- 0.1) and a metallicity of -1.6 +/- 0.3. Although Antlia is in a relatively isolated part of the Local Group it is only 1.2 degrees away on the sky from the Local Group dwarf NGC3109, and may be an associated system.Comment: AJ in press, 15 pages, 7 figures, figure 2 in b/w for space saving, full postscript version available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~gkth/antlia-pp.htm