At the XVIIth World Congress on Safety and Health at Work being held on 18-22 September in Orlando, Florida, the ILO provided the results of a new study on the annual number of work-related accidents and diseases.

Estimates are made available in an introductory report to the Congress entitled Decent Work - Safe Work which also presents a regional breakdown on the effectiveness of reporting and coverage systems.

The report says that some 2.2 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases each year. This means more than 5,000 workers worldwide lose their lives because of occupational injuries and diseases. The report adds that this figure may be vastly under estimated due not only to poor reporting of accidents and diseases and dysfunctions of coverage systems in many countries, but also to rapid development and strong competitiveness in growing economies of the developing world.

As a co-sponsor of the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, the ILO intends to use this platform of exchange to increase awareness of the human and economic costs of accidents and diseases at work and to urge members to intensify preventive efforts to promote occupational safety and health.

See also «Global workplace deaths vastly under-reported, says ILO» Press Release ILO/05/36 Geneva: International Labour Organization, 19 September 2005.