Work-related illness has risen by 122%, affecting up to 1.3 million people every year with 27,000 pe...
Work-related illness has risen by 122%, affecting up to 1.3 million people every year with 27,000 people never returning to work, according to research from the Health and Safety Executive.
Based on statistics from 1995/ 1996, the HSE also found that an additional one million people were injured while at work.
The combined effect of work-related accident and illness culminates in the loss of 24.3 million working days while individual workers are estimated to lose a total of £558m in reduced income and additional expenditures.
The total cost to the economy in terms of sick pay, benefits and lost production is estimated to be between £14.45bn and £18.1bn.
It was found that work-related illnesses most frequently acquired include psychological disorders, respiratory diseases, deafness, eye strain and trauma.
Musculo-skeletal disorders were the biggest cause of absence, culminating in 9,862,000 estimated working days lost, while stress caused 6,465,000 days to be lost. But while musculo-skeletal disorders may be affecting more people, stress keeps people off work for longer. The average length of time off needed for stress was 16 days, compared with 13 for musculo-skeletal disorders.
Although work-related injuries are falling, they are still having a considerable impact on workplace absence. While almost half of victims needed less than a day off, 16% of victims needed between one and three days to recover. Over 2% were off work for more than three months.
The report was launched to coincide with Health and Safety Week.
