Occupational health: two million people suffering from a work-related illness
The latest Occupational Health Statistics Bulletin, produced by the HSE, reports that an estimated two million people are suffering from an illness that they believed is caused, or made worse, by their current or past work.
Overall, in 2004/05 an estimated two million people were suffering from an illness which they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work; 576 thousand of these first became aware of their illness in the past 12 months.
Twenty thousand of the new cases each year were considered severe enough to be seen by specialist doctors. In 2005 an estimated 22,000 new cases were seen by hospital specialists and occupational physicians in The Health and Occupation Reporting network (THOR), while 6,500 were assessed as qualifying for compensation under the Department for Work and Pensions’ Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit Scheme (IIDB).
Based on analysis of death certificates, in 2004 nearly 2000 people died from mesothelioma, a cancer caused mainly by occupational exposure to asbestos, and around as many again from asbestos-related lung cancer. One hundred people died from asbestosis and over 200 from other types of pneumoconiosis, mostly associated with coal dust and silica. Current best estimates are that 4% of cancer deaths are due to past exposures at work. This would mean that each year 6,000 people die from cancer related to occupational factors. However, the HSE acknowledges that these estimates are out of date and could be much higher, or lower, than predicted; work is currently underway to update them.
Research indicates that approximately 15% of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD – including bronchitis and emphysema) may be work-related. This implies that there could be around 4000 COPD deaths each year resulting from past occupational exposures to fumes, chemicals and dusts.
In 2004/05, as in previous years, the most common types of work-related illness were musculoskeletal disorders – in particular those affecting the back and upper limbs – and stress and other types of mental illness. These accounted for around three quarters of self-reported cases and two thirds of those seen by THOR specialist doctors.
The other types of ill health with the largest numbers of cases reported by doctors in the THOR network were respiratory diseases (such as asthma) and skin diseases (especially dermatitis). Among cases compensated under the IIDB scheme, the main categories were vibration white finger, carpal tunnel syndrome and respiratory diseases associated with past exposures to asbestos and coal dust. Other occupational diseases which feature in the different sources include deafness and infections.
