Decrease in lost workday injuries

IN 2001, a total of 1.5 million injuries and illnesses in private industry required recuperation away from work beyond the day of the incident, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. The series of studies began in 1992, and since then there has been a steady decline

Another type of lost workday is a case of restricted work activity. Since 1997, the number of injuries and illnesses with restricted work activity remained at more than one million cases in 2001.

More than four out of 10 injuries and illnesses resulting in time away from work were sprains and strains, usually involving the back, but that number dropped 34.5 percent from 1992 to 2001.