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At the 22nd World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, which was held on the 3rd to the 6th of September in Singapore, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA), in cooperation with the ILO, presents new estimates of the costs associated with a lack of health and safety at work.
From the new findings, the loss of 3.9% of GDP is a global loss resulting from accidents at work and occupational diseases, which represents an annual cost of approximately EUR 2.680 billion.
Occupational and occupational accidents represent 3.3% of the European Union’s GDP. This is EUR 476 billion, which can be saved annually through sound health, safety and health policies, practices and practices.
These estimates are based on the findings of a large project on the costs and benefits of OSH. This project is being implemented by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Finnish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Finnish Institute for Health Protection at Work (FIOH), the WSH Institute in Singapore, the ICOH and the EU-OSHA.
Before the upcoming World Congress, the Director of the EU-OSHA Agency Christa Sedlatschek said: “Safe and healthy work is one of the basic human rights. These new estimates of the costs associated with inadequate or non-existent OSH measures are, however, evidence that the economic arguments for OSH have never been more convincing. Occupational and occupational accidents represent 3.4% of the European Union’s GDP. This is € 476 billion, which can be saved annually through good health, safety and health policies, practices and practices. ”
Good OSH practice can help businesses increase their productivity, competitiveness and sustainability while reducing healthcare costs and other burdens for society. Insufficient OSH levels will costly – for individuals, businesses and society. Through this OSH-related cost-benefit project, EU-OSHA has taken steps to identify and evaluate data available in the EU and globally to produce accurate and up-to-date estimates of the cost of accidents at work and occupational diseases.
A selection of other findings to be presented at the World Congress:
- Occupational diseases account for 86% of all work-related deaths worldwide, and 98% of all work-related deaths worldwide.
- Worldwide, 123.3 million years of life-related illness (DALY pointer) is lost as a result of occupational accidents and occupational diseases. Of this, 67.8 million (3.4 million in the EU) for death and 55.5 million (3.7 million in the EU) for disability.
- In most European countries, the largest share of costs is related to work-related cancers (119.5 billion euros or 0.81% of EU GDP), followed by musculoskeletal disorders.
A new data visualization tool developed by EU-OSHA will be introduced at the World Congress . This tool displays the worldwide costs associated with occupational and occupational accidents in a user-friendly way. Key results are presented in infor- mation, giving researchers and policy-makers a quick and easy overview of relevant findings. Developing the data visualization tool also meant transparency and simplicity, including a glossary of commonly used concepts and guides for the methods used.
The World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health is the world’s largest event, bringing together occupational health professionals and, therefore, excellent opportunities to present these new findings. The EU-OSHA agency is one of the support organizations of the World Congress and during these four days will participate in a wide range of events: it will provide speakers, participate in workshops and will also offer its own stand. In particular, the Agency is the co-organizer of two symposia, the first of which will cover the project on the costs and benefits of OSH, and the second will focus on good OSH practice in micro-enterprises and small-scale evidence-based businesses, building on their work in this area and their project OiRA (online interactive risk assessment).
