Workplace homicides resulted in a total cost of nearly $6.5 billion and a mean cost of $800,000 between 1992 and 2001, NIOSH researchers estimate in a study published in the June 2005 issue ofAmerican Journal of Industrial Medicine.

The retail trade industry had the highest number of homicides and total cost for that period, $2.1 billion for male employees and $556,000 for female employees.

The estimates incorporated medical expenses, loss of wages from the year of death until the year the decedent would have been 67, and household production losses such as child care.

The findings provide data to help shape strategies and policies for preventing workplace homicides.

The abstract for the article, “Societal Cost of Workplace Homicides in the United States, 1992-2001” by Daniel Hartley, Elyce A. Biddle, and E. Lynn Jenkins, is available at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/110495812/PDFSTART. For further information on NIOSH research and recommendations for preventing workplace violence, see http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/injury/traumaviolence.html.