PCCA Journal|1
st
Quarter 2010
37
A
report of conference presentations and dis-
cussions among participants from the Na-
tional Academies of Science, universities and
research institutions, and representatives of
professional associations, industry, and labor
recommends attention to workplace environ-
ments to maintain “work ability” as workers age, along
with legislative fixes and research to fill in knowledge
gaps for keeping workers healthy and productive.
According to researchers using U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) data, older workers are more severely
injured and die with greater frequency from work-relat-
ed injuries than younger workers. Older workers also
have longer recovery periods than younger workers.
These findings raise health care delivery and economic
issues for the nation, as more workers are choosing to
delay retirement due to collapsed 401(k) plans and sav-
ings. BLS uses workers age 55 and older in its calcula-
tions, although the rates rise sharply for those workers
over age 65. Other agencies and organizations define
the term as age 50 or 55 and up. The Department of
Labor uses age 40 as a starting point for “older work-
er.”
“The issue of healthy aging is critically important as
the U.S. economy is revitalized,” said National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health Director John How-
ard, M.D. “As we go forward in time, the demand for
workers will grow, but fewer workers will be entering
the workforce and a larger proportion of the workforce
will be older. This is a simple reality of demograph-
ics. Having a healthy, productive workforce will help
sustain economic growth in the decades ahead. We
must take steps now to help all workers stay safe and
healthy at work as they age. We must also take steps to
address the special needs of older workers who, more
and more, will be staying on the job past traditional
retirement age.”
The conference paid particular attention to work-
ers in physically demanding jobs, including construc-
tion. Construction workers already suffer the highest
number of fatalities in any U.S. industry. But the death
rate among construction workers 55 years and older
was nearly 80 percent higher than that of construc-
tion workers younger than 35 in 2007. And like the
rest of the workforce, the average age of a construction
worker is rising; it was 40.4 in 2008, which is 4.4 years
older than in 1985. The average retirement age among
construction workers is 61.
“Our nation loses an average of four construction
workers every workday to a job-related incident, and
that’s been consistent for more than a decade,” said
Pete Stafford, executive director of the Center for Con-
struction Research and Training. “As we start to rebuild
our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and venture into
green jobs, we want to make sure jobsites do not be-
come a source of pain and death for older workers who
have so much to contribute, especially in mentoring
younger workers.”
The full conference report and presentations from
national and international researchers on occupational
health and safety issues can be found on the Society
for Occupational and Environmental Health’s website,
www.soeh.org.
Safety News
Safety News continued on page 38
NIOSH Update: Aging Workers
at Higher Risk of Death, Severe Injury