'One work death every 3.5 minutes'.

Byline: Jean Christou

EVERY THREE-and-a-half minutes somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes, according to figures released yesterday.

Every year 5,720 people die in the EU as a consequence of work-related accidents, Eurostat said.

On top of this the International Labour Organisation estimates that an additional 159,500 workers in the EU die every year from occupational diseases.

Putting the two together, the total is close to 350 people every day.

The figures were released as part of the launch tomorrow of an EU-wide Safety and Health at Work campaign.

Last year in Cyprus, 17 people were directly killed at work, mainly in the construction sector. It is not known how may die from work-related causes.

Last year's toll was slightly down on 2006, when 18 people died on the job.

According to the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) most of these accidents and diseases are preventable, "and the first step in preventing them is risk assessment", it said,

"That is the message of "Healthy Workplaces. Good for you. Good for business," said the announcement on the Europe-wide information campaign on risk assessment, that will be launched tomorrow.

The campaign focuses especially on high-risk sectors such as construction, healthcare and agriculture, and on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). It will run over two years (2008-09).

Under EU law, all employers in the bloc are required to carry out risk assessments.

"Every occupational accident and disease is one too many", said Vladimaer a pidla, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. "Even if they don't result in fatalities, the consequences are unacceptable, both for the people concerned and for the economy."

Spidla said every year, millions of workers in the EU are involved in accidents which force them to stay at home for at least three working days at an enormous cost to the economy.

"Risk assessment is the key to reducing these figures. But it can only be the first step -- implementation must follow," he added.

OSHA Director Jukka Takala said risk assessment was not necessarily complicated, bureaucratic or a task only for experts.

"This is a mistaken belief that is particularly common among SMEs. But there are plenty of tools available that help in the process," he said.

"Business benefits, because making workplaces safer and healthier helps to reduce absenteeism and insurance costs, and increases worker motivation and productivity."

In Cyprus two our of ten people who work or have worked in the past report job-related health problems.

These include builders, trade and service workers, office and bank staff and metal workers.

In 84 per cent of reported cases of health problems, those interviewed said it was their line was work that caused their ill health while the remainder were caused by accidents at work.

One out of three of the accidents involved falls at work and another third were caused by machinery, and 17 per cent from heavy lifting.

The main injuries reported from accidents were back problem, and muscle and joint damage, accounting for 70 per cent of all cases.

Only half of all work accidents are reported to the Labour Ministry, while 41 per cent said they didn't report it. The remainder did not know they should report it.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2008

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