Decent work - Safe work

Note: *The data are weighted in relation to estimated factors of age and gender structures. **The calculations are based on a normal life expectancy in relation to the age at which death may occur. Source: ILO, Decent work - Safe work, 2005

The data show a small but significant increase in work-related accidents and diseases (about 10%) since the previous ILO study in 2002 (reference year 1998). The main reasons are:

• increase in the total number of workers (economically active population);

• change in the composition of the workforce in terms of sex and age;

• a slight global increase in the number of accidents;

• a significant increase in the rate of fatalities from past exposure to certain substances because of the latency of some diseases in many industrialised countries.

In the industrialised countries, changing employment patterns have contributed to the decline of fatal work-related accidents. Fewer workers now work in hazardous sectors, as more people tend to be employed in the relatively safe service sectors. However, in developing countries, industrialisation tends to go hand in hand with the rapid increase in rates of fatal accidents.

Work-related non-fatal diseases

The 2005 ILO report uses the concept of'work-related diseases'. This approach includes all cases of disease that are made worse by work, irrespective of the original cause of the disease. It is estimated that about 2.3% of workers (58 million people) suffer from work-related illnesses that cause four days or more absence from work.

Occupational injuries

Young workers are more affected by fatal accidents than older workers, whereas work-related cancer and circulatory diseases occur more often in a later phase of working life or after retirement.

The ILO report acknowledges that some factors contributing to work-related diseases are difficult to eliminate. Nevertheless, occupational accidents are more easily preventable at the workplace if already established best practice prevention strategies are applied. Such interventions could avoid 300,000 deaths (out of a total of 360,000) and 200 million accidents (out of 270 million). Fatal accidents are considered to represent only a small proportion of the overall problem: the assumption is that, for each fatality, 500 to 2,000 smaller injuries occur, depending on the type of work.

The report refers to recent studies by the World Economic Forum and the Lausanne Institute of Management (IMD), which demonstrate that the most competitive countries (based on labour productivity) are also the safest.

Impact of occupational injuries and diseases

Re-employability can be fundamentally reduced by a loss of working ability. Unemployed people are more concerned by ill-health than those who are actively employed. Some 30% of unemployed people report suffering from an injury or disease dating from the time that they were employed. Their impaired health proves an obstacle to finding new employment.

More than half of those who retire from work as a result of occupational injuries and diseases take early retirement and disability pensions. On average, retirement is lowered by five years, which equates to 14% of the lifetime working capacity of the employed labour force.

Men, more often than women, suffer occupational deaths, as a large majority of men have hazardous jobs. Women are more affected by outcomes that cause long-term disabilities and absences from work, such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSD).

Health promotion and well-being at work

The study estimates that passive smoking at the workplace causes 2.8% of all lung cancers and is responsible for about 14% of all work-related deaths. The attributable fraction of deaths was 1.1% for chronic pulmonary disease, 4.5% for asthma, 3.4% for coronary heart disease, and 9.4% for cerebrovascular stroke.

Figures for the EU15

According to ILO estimates, about 120,000 annual deaths in the EU15 are caused by work-related diseases, compared with some 6,000 fatal occupational accidents. Table 2 shows estimates for occupational accidents and work-related diseases.