A Call For Safer And Healthier Working Environments : ILO Report
The ILO (International Labour Organization) has released a report titled ‘A Call for Safer and Healthier Working Environments’, which will be discussed at the 23rd World Congress on Safety and Health at Work (WCSHW) in Sydney, Australia.
- The WCSHW, first held in 1955, is one of the largest international conferences for work health and safety.
- It aims to connect global leaders in safety and harm prevention from over 120 countries.
Key Highlights of the Report:
- Approximately 30 lakh (3 million) workers globally die each year due to work-related accidents and diseases.
- More than 63% of these deaths occur in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Long working hours (55 hours or more per week) led to the most fatalities in 2016, accounting for nearly 7.45 lakh deaths.
- Exposure to occupational particulate matter, gases, and fumes resulted in around 4.5 lakh deaths.
- Occupational injuries caused approximately 3.63 lakh deaths.
- Sectors such as mining and quarrying, construction, and utilities were identified as the most hazardous globally based on fatal occupational injury rates.
- The FOIR is a statistical measure used to quantify the number of deaths resulting from work-related accidents or injuries within a specific occupational group, industry, or geographic region over a specified period.
- So far 79 out of the 187 member countries have ratified the ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention, while 62 countries have ratified the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006.
- India has not ratified both the conventions.Recently, in the wake of Uttarkashi tunnel incident , the Central Trade Unions had urged the Union government to ratify the conventions.
- A significant portion of work-related deaths (26 lakh) is attributed to work-related diseases, including circulatory diseases, malignant neoplasms (Cancerous tumours), and respiratory diseases.
- Changing trends in diseases due to occupational exposure, such as increased cases of trachea, bronchus, and lung cancers attributable to chromium exposure, and rising cases of mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure.
- Deaths due to exposure to asthmagens and particulate matter, gases, and fumes have decreased by over 20%.
