Over two million workers die from workplace related causes: UN agencies

Over two million workers die from workplace-related causes each year, including illness associated with long working hours and air pollution, according to a study by UN agencies.

Work-related diseases and injuries led to the deaths of 1.9 million workers in 2016, showed the study by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Labour Organisation.

It took into account 19 occupational risk factors including long working hours, and workplace exposure to air pollution, asthmagens, carcinogens and noise, and found that a high number of work-related deaths occurred in South-East Asia and the Western Pacific, in males, and in those over 54 years of age.

It builds on earlier findings by WHO that showed that long working hours were leading to the deaths of 745,000 people a year through strokes and heart disease.

Another factor of death at the workplace was exposure to air pollution such as gases and fumes, and tiny particles associated with industrial emissions.

Between 2000 and 2016, the number of work-related deaths relative to population size fell by 14%, which could reflect improvements in workplace health and safety, the report highlighted.