Circulatory diseases, cancer among major causes of death, finds report
2.9 million – that’s the number of deaths that was attributed to work in 2019 worldwide, according to a recent report.
That number was up 26 per cent from 2.3 million deaths recorded in 2011, noted researchers from Tampere University, Finland, and the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) in Italy.
Among the deaths in 2019, 2.58 million were due to work-related diseases and 0.32 million were due to occupational injuries.
“Globally, work-related diseases with a long latency period are increasing while the number of occupational injuries has decreased,” said Dr. Jukka Takala, former president of ICOH.
The disability-adjusted life years (DALY) – the sum of the years of life lost – attributable to work rose by 47 per cent from 123 million in 2014 to 180 million in 2019. DALY combines years of life lost due to premature mortality and years of life lost due to time lived in states of less than full health, or years of healthy life lost due to disability. One DALY represents the loss of one year of full health.
The 2019 data resulted in an economic loss of 5.8% of the global GDP.
A vast discrepancy exists between the number of work related deaths officially reported by Ontario’s Workplace Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) and other Worker’s Compensation Boards (WCBs) across Canada and the actual number of people who died from a work-related injury or illness last year, according to the Workers Health & Safety Centre.
Major causes of deaths
Work-related circulatory diseases are the major cause of 912,000 deaths globally, followed by 843,000 deaths attributed to work-related cancer, according to the study conducted in cooperation with Tampere University, ICOH and the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
However, in the high-income, American, Eastern Europe and Western Pacific WHO regions, work-related cancer is the biggest disease group.
“There is a considerable regional and country variation in the burden of work-related diseases. A concerted and sustainable global effort to promote health and safety in the workplace is imperative to mitigate the burden of work-related diseases and accidents,” said Dr. Subas Neupane, senior research fellow at Tampere University.
“The burden of work-related diseases is a major global health challenge. Updated estimates are needed to understand the trends in the work-related burden of diseases, working conditions and their impact on workers’ health as well as to identify where the current efforts fall short.”
The issue of occupational disease is rampant within the fire service, and several provinces have previously expanded cancer coverage for firefighters.
