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Some 2.2 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases each year, the International Labour Office (ILO) said in a new report to be issued Monday at the 17th World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, adding this number may be vastly under estimated due to poor reporting and coverage systems in many countries.
While the number of work-related illnesses and deaths has lessened somewhat in the industrialized countries, the ILO report said the number of accidents - in particular fatal accidents - appear to be increasing, particularly in some Asian countries due to poor reporting, rapid development and strong competitive pressures of globalization.
The ILO report, entitled Decent Work - Safe Work,also warns that that hazardous substances cause the deaths of an estimated 440,000 workers each year. Of these, asbestos alone kills some 100,000 workers worldwide each year. The number of people killed by asbestos in the United Kingdom, according to that country's own estimates, is some 3,500 every year - more than ten times the number of workers killed in accidents there.
The European Union, meanwhile, recently in its own Statistical Portrait Report estimated a total of 120,000 fatalities (EU 15) attributed to work while the ILO's estimate is now at 122,000 work-related deaths annually. The United States number is estimated to be 103,000.
The ILO said reporting systems and coverage of occupational safety and health in many developing countries are poor and in some cases deteriorating. For example, India reports 222 fatal accidents while the Czech Republic, which has a working population of about 1% of India, reports 231, the ILO said, adding that it has estimated the true number of fatal accidents in India at 40,000. The report said such statistics suggested that only a fraction of the real toll of work-related death and disease is covered in a number of developing countries.
The report noted that men, in particular, are at risk of dying at working age (below 65) while women suffer more from work-related communicable diseases, psycho-social factors and long-term musculo-skeletal disorders. In several industrial countries, more than half of the retirements are based on early retirements and disability pensions rather than workers reaching the normal retirement age. While not all factors behind these trends are directly caused by work, the workplace is in a key position for prevention and maintaining work ability through its management system.
While work-related diseases are the main problem in industrialized countries, accident hazards are more prevalent in the developing economies where workers are frequently dying in mishaps that occur in such sectors as mining, construction and agriculture. In the industrialized countries, the share of the workforce in such hazardous sectors has declined while that of safer service industries (office work, banking, commerce) has grown.
Furthermore, the findings show younger workers (age 15-24) are more likely to suffer non-fatal occupational accidents than their older colleagues, while workers over the age of 55 appear to be more likely to suffer fatal accidents and ill-health than others, the ILO report said.
The report also says that newly emerging problems such as psychosocial factors, violence, the effects of alcohol and drugs, stress, smoking and HIV/AIDS are rapidly leading to increased morbidity and mortality worldwide. Smoking, which affects mostly workers in the restaurant, entertainment and service sectors, is estimated to cause 14% of all work-related deaths caused by disease, or close to 200,000 fatalities.
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