Today we will tell you today is national what day. Workers, employers, governments and ministries of health and safety, in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO), are celebrating World Day on Safety and Health at Work around the world with the common goal of promoting the “culture of Security “.
Since 1996, every year, on April 28, the global labor movement has been honoring the victims of accidents and occupational diseases. In 2003, the ILO undertook to observe a “World Day for Safety and Health at Work” with a focus on the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, building on what has traditionally been the strength of the Organization, namely tripartism and social dialogue.
World Day on Safety and Health at Work April 28
Security in numbers
The main objective of this day is to promote a culture of occupational safety and health throughout the world.
On the occasion of this day, the International Labor Office published a report “Security in figures” which shows that 2.2 million workers worldwide die each year as part of their work, as a result of an accident at work or an occupational disease that is 5,000 people a day.
Diseases and work
The most common occupational diseases are legion: cancers caused by exposure to hazardous substances, musculoskeletal diseases, respiratory diseases, hearing loss, circulatory diseases, contagious diseases caused by exposure to pathogens, and many other diseases. still others. In many industrialized countries where the number of deaths caused by an industrial accident has decreased, the number of deaths caused by an occupational disease, such as asbestosis, is on the contrary increasing.
According to this assessment, asbestosis is responsible for 100,000 deaths per year in the world related to work. At the same time, only in the agricultural sector, which alone employs half of the world’s workforce, and which is the main sector of economic activity in most underdeveloped countries, is it already 70 000 deaths per year due to poisoning due to the use of pesticides, not counting non-fatal diseases acute or chronic, even more numerous.
Safety and health
WHO’s action on occupational health focuses on strengthening surveillance, assessing the burden of occupational health, developing a country database, and Better support for workplace health policies, action plans at national level. Another key role is the development of skills through a network of WHO Collaborating Centers for Occupational Health that exchanges information on risk factors (chemical, physical, ergonomic, psychosocial, biological, accident).
Finally, WHO defines a minimum of services that each country must provide for primary prevention and occupational health.
The ILO has also provided new data showing that in the construction sector, at least 60,000 fatal occupational accidents occur each year worldwide, one death every 10 minutes. This sector alone accounts for nearly 17 percent of these accidents, not to mention the health risks to those who work there, such as exposure to asbestos dust, silica and hazardous chemicals. . This report stresses, as do the ILO Conventions Recommendations and Guidelines, the need for better planning and coordination of activities to address safety and health problems at building sites,
More than 100 countries will participate in the celebration of World Day for Safety and Health at Work by organizing special events and activities in this context. Together, WHO and the ILO will join forces to promote and strengthen their cooperation at the national level between the Ministries of Labor and Health, as well as with the business community, workers ‘and employers’ organizations, and other actors in civil society.
