Occupational injuries, fatal and non-fatal, are serious public health concerns which are largely preventable through efforts such as occupational health surveillance, enforcement, outreach, compliance assistance, training, and education.

In New Jersey, the death rate from occupational related injuries is 2.1 per 100,000 employees.  Motor vehicle incidents, falls, homicides, machine-related incidents, electrocutions, and being struck by objects were the predominant causes of occupational fatalities in New Jersey over the 16 year period.

The DOH Occupational Health Services unit collects information on work place injuries from the work related fatality assessment surveillance system.  Successful approaches to making New Jersey workplaces healthier and safer begin by collecting the information necessary to understand the problem. Occupational Health Indicators provide a snapshot of the health of New Jersey workers and can be used by public health officials to track work-related adverse health effects and their causes. The Department has partnered with the federal government for the NJ Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) Project which is a research program that investigates the causes of fatal work-related injuries.

In New Jersey there are over 4,000 work-related hospitalizations per year.

For more information, please refer to these resources:

• Division of Workers' Compensation 
• NJ Department of Labor and Workforce Development 
• Occupational Health Surveillance Unit 
• NJ Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses  
• Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE)