UPI reports on an interesting new survey about workplace safety and on-the-job injuries and stress.

In the survey by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago for the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, an overwhelming majority of workers surveyed ranked workplace safety as their top labor issue or concern.

In the survey, employees linked job stress to injuries.

Most workers said they are satisfied with safety conditions at work, but they also reported job-related stress -- a contributing factor to injury.

"Exhaustion, dangerous working conditions and other negative experiences at work are reported by many workers," Tom W. Smith, director of NORC's General Social Survey, said in a statement. "Such conditions mean that workplace accidents are far from rare."'

Those surveyed also said that workplace injuries are underplayed in the media, unless they result in a worker's death. And even then, coverage can be lacking.

In workers' minds, the media doesn't seem to recognize how many workplace illnesses and injuries that occur every year. Nor do they regularly publish stories or broadcast news reports that address the situation facing injured workers when they lose their health and their livelihoods.

"Workplace safety is too often ignored or accidents taken for granted," Smith said. "It is striking that coverage in the media and public opinion polls has virtually ignored the 11 workers killed by the blowout and destruction of the drilling platform (in the Gulf of Mexico)."