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 The study by the World Health Organization and International Labour
Organization, the first assessment of its kind, found that
work-related diseases and injuries were responsible 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, saying
he hoped the report would be a "wake-up call".
The study considers 19 occupational risk factors including long
working hours but also workplace exposure to air pollution,
asthmagens, carcinogens and noise.
It showed that a disproportionate number of work-related deaths
occurred in workers in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, in
males, and in those over 54 years of age.
The study builds on earlier WHO findings that long working hours
were killing approximately 745,000 people a year through strokes and
heart disease.
The broader report, published on Friday, found that another big
workplace killer was exposure to air pollution such as gases and
fumes, as well as tiny particles associated with industrial
emissions.
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 Air pollution was responsible
for 450,000 deaths in 2016, the report found.
Injuries killed 360,000 people.
On the positive side, the number of work-related
deaths relative to population fell by 14%
between 2000 and 2016, the report found, adding
that this may reflect improvements in workplace
health and safety.
 However, it also said that the work-related
burden of disease was probably "substantially
larger" than estimated.
Frank Pega, WHO technical officer, said that
other deaths including those from rising heat
associated with climate change were not
currently included, and nor were communicable
diseases such as COVID-19.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Catherine
Evans)
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