Nearly 2 MLN people have died in a year from work-related stress: UN Agencies

Nearly 2 million people have died from work-related reasons each year, including from illnesses related to long working hours and air pollution, stated U.N. agencies.

The study showed that the World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization, the first valuation of its kind, found that work-related diseases and injuries were accountable for the deaths of 1.9 million people in 2016.

“It’s shocking to see so many people literally being killed by their jobs,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general.

The study reflects 19 occupational risk factors comprising long working hours but also workplace exposure to air pollution, asthmagens, carcinogens, and noise.

It showed that an uneven number of work-related deaths ensued in workers in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, in males over 54 years of age.

The study is built on the finding of WHO that long working hours were killing around 745,000 people a year through heart strokes and other heart-related diseases.

The broader report found that another big workstation killer was in contact with air pollution such as gases and fumes, as well as tiny elements connected with industrial emissions.

Air pollution was accountable for 450,000 deaths in 2016, the report found. Injuries killed 360,000 people.

Whereas the number of in-service deaths comparative to population fell by 14% between 2000 and 2016, the report found, adding that this may replicate developments in workplace health and safety.

Furthermore, it also said that the work-related load of disease was perhaps “substantially larger” than projected.