Less Economically Developed Countries Need Help to Create Healthy Workplaces

摘要

Globally, three billion working people have daily occupational health needs that can only be metby providing occupational health services, such as those to support sick workers and to ensurethat workplaces are safe and healthy (1). Each year, over two million of the world’s workers die fromoccupational diseases and 160 million get sick from non-fatal occupational diseases (2). Disabilityadjusted life years (DALYs) are a measure of the years of a healthy life lost from disease andpremature death; in 2005 43.0 million DALYs were estimated worldwide, as a result of lung cancer,leukemia and mesothelioma (3). It is estimated that 1.6 million of those DALYs could be attributedto exposure to occupational carcinogens (4). Occupational diseases are entirely preventable, but theILO estimates occupational injuries and diseases cost the world 2.8 trillion USD each year (5). Theoverall worker death rate continues to increase, with the majority of deaths taking place in poorercountries with fewer legal protections for workers (6).Despite being disproportionately affected, it is difficult to get an accurate picture of theoccupationally-related morbidity and mortality being experienced in the poorest countries of theworld. One of the greatest challenges encountered while conducting occupational health research inless economically developed countries (LEDCs), is a lack of local or even regional data to describethe extent of the problem. This includes information on exposure in general and in the form ofexposure measurements, and information about the industry and population under study.