The relationship between the cost due to accidents in the drug industry and the investment in the Safety Management System

Introduction: Accidents in the drug industry are one of the major problems in the world. Deaths caused by occupational accidents result in the loss of life, working hours, and related costs. These accidents create a lot of wastes for the community and labour organizations. Occupational accidents lead to socio-economic losses such as disability, loss of work time, and enhancement in medical care. Despite extensive investigations, measuring the cost of accidents is still not clear and practical, therefore, the ultimate goal of the current investigation is to provide a novel framework in the determination of the direct and indirect cost of accidents in the drug industry. Method: In this study, by the use of a new and structured approach in Six-step, the cost of accidents in the industry has been calculated. To calculate the cost of accidents of industry in the year 2016, the intensity of accidental results were classified into 5 groups, e. i. short-term absences, long-term absence, small disability, total disability, and death, and  on the basis of borne costs in six groups including production disturbance costs, human capital costs, medical costs, administrative costs, transfer costs, and other costs according to the direct or indirect costs caused by the incident and impose costs on workers, employers and society which, has been analyzed by using statistical tests. Results: Statistical analysis revealed the direct and indirect costs of accidents, and before and after the safety management system had a significant difference (P-value=0.007). In another word, direct and indirect costs were significant with several differences. This research indicated that the indirect cost was four times greater than the direct costs. Conclusion: Hence, accidents resulting in deaths, total disability, and partial disability impose huge cost borne on society and the employer than the relative cost, which is because of the health, treatment, and welfare systems of society for the treatment and rehabilitation of injured employee and his family. Therefore, investment in the safety management system is effective and associated with reducing accidents.