Hospitalizations for Accidents and Injuries in the U.S. Navy. 4. A Comparison of Nuclear and Conventionally Powered Surface Ships

摘要

Occupational safety and health is of continuing concern to both private industry and the military. At present more than 2.5 million workdays are lost annually in the United States to injury and disease, with accidential injuries the leading cause of death and disability among men under age 35. Since the magnitude and severity of the risks of accidental injury depend upon the particular hazards associated with each occupation and work environment, and the protective and preventive measures in place to reduce such risks, interpretation of the relationship between these factors and host characteristics is needed to understand how they may contribute to accidents in the U.S. Navy. The objective of this study was to provide detailed analyses of accidental injury-related hospitalizations as a function of the work environment, determining if duty aboard nuclear powered ships was more or less hazardous than duty aboard conventionally powered ships of the same type.