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American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1991 Jan;81(1):85–89. doi: 10.2105/ajph.81.1.85

Reporting of occupational injury and illness in the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

S A McCurdy 1, M B Schenker 1, S J Samuels 1
PMCID: PMC1404938  PMID: 1983922

Abstract

In the United States, occupational illness and injury cases meeting specific reporting criteria are recorded on company Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 200 logs; case description data are submitted to participating state agencies for coding and entry in the national Supplementary Data System (SDS). We evaluated completeness of reporting (the percentage of reportable cases that were recorded in the company OSHA 200 log) in the semiconductor manufacturing industry by reviewing company health clinic records for 1984 of 10 manufacturing sites of member companies of a national semiconductor manufacturing industry trade association. Of 416 randomly selected work-related cases, 101 met OSHA reporting criteria. Reporting completeness was 60 percent and was lowest for occupational illnesses (44 percent). Case-description data from 150 reported cases were submitted twice to state coding personnel to evaluate coding reliability. Reliability was high (kappa 0.82-0.93) for "nature," "affected body part," "source," and "type" variables. Coding for the SDS appears reliable; reporting completeness may be improved by use of a stepwise approach by company personnel responsible for reporting decisions.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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