ILO calls for urgent global action to fight occupational diseases

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) has called for an “urgent and vigorous” global campaign to tackle the growing number of work-related diseases.

“The ultimate cost of occupational disease is human life. It impoverishes workers and their families and may undermine whole communities when they lose their most productive workers,” said the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder in a statement issued for the recently held World Day for Safety and Health at Work.

“Meanwhile, the productivity of enterprises is reduced and the financial burden on the State increases as the cost of health care rises. Where social protection is weak or absent, many workers as well as their families, lack the care and support they need.”

Ryder said prevention is the key to tackling the burden of occupational diseases, and is more
effective and less costly than treatment and rehabilitation.

He therefore stressed that the ILO was calling for a “paradigm of prevention with comprehensive and coherent action targeting occupational diseases, not only injuries”.

“A fundamental step is to recognise the framework provided by the ILO’s international labour standards for effective preventative action and promoting their ratification and implementation.”

The ILO Director-General further acknowledged that occupational diseases carry an enormous cost – for workers and their families, as well as for economic and social development.

He also revealed that the ILO estimates that occupational accidents and diseases result in an annual 4 per cent loss in global gross domestic product (GDP), or about US $2.8 trillion, in direct and indirect costs of injuries and diseases.

“Good quality data is of key importance, providing the basis for an effective prevention strategy. Yet, globally, more than half of all countries do not provide statistics for occupational diseases. Only a few countries collect sex-disaggregated data. This makes it difficult not only to identify specific types of occupational injuries and diseases that affect men and women, but also hinders the development of effective preventive measures for all.

“Significantly reducing the incidence of occupational disease is not simple, it may not be easy and it will not happen overnight, but progress is certainly feasible. So let us, in our respective areas of responsibility, set clear OSH goals, establish a road map and most critically, act and persevere so that,
together, we succeed in turning the tide on the epidemic and make good progress on this dimension of decent work,” Ryder said. (TL)