Work-Related Fatalities Reach Two Million Annually Worldwide
Ken Willams and Dennis Keezer

Two Million workers die each year due to work-related accidents and diseases, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) - which equates to more than 5,000 work-related deaths each day. Furthermore, for every fatal accident, another 500 to 2,000 injuries occur. These figures were included in the groups report, "Decent Work-Safe Work," delivered at the recent 16th World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health at Work. "The number of estimated deaths among workers has clearly increased since 1990 mainly because work-related communicable diseases were not counted previously and the number of cases of work-related cancers and circulatory diseases have increased," ILO states.
Cancer takes the greatest toll worldwide, causing nearly 640,000 deaths (32 percent), followed by circulatory diseases (23 percent), accidents (19 percent) and communicable diseases (17 percent), according to the ILO report. Visit www.ilo.org for more information.