Rooted in the 28 April Workers Memorial Day, which was started in 1989 by American and Canadian trade unions to commemorate dead and injured workers and now observed by the trade union movement in more than 100 countries, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work was first organized by the ILO in 2003 as a way of bringing a tripartite focus to the mission of reducing work-related death, injury, and disease.
This year, ILO offices and tripartite constituents in more than 60 countries marked the day with activities that included rallies, conferences and media events, while in Geneva the ILO joined forces with the World Health Organization (WHO) to call attention to the escalating need for preventative safety culture worldwide. The construction industry, with one of the highest accident rates of any sector, received special focus in 2005.
In Algeria a postage stamp was produced and presented at the country's opening ceremony marking the World Day. A promotional event for social partnership took place in Yerevan, Armenia, which featured the creation of the first bipartite safety committee at the enterprise level, the result of a grassroots initiative functioning with ILO assistance to improve occupational safety and health. And the Prime Minister of Thailand recorded a special video message for the World Day which was broadcast over television and radio channels throughout the country.
"Prevention begins with a commitment to put worker safety and well-being at the heart of policies at all levels. This is the point of departure for action to reduce the risk of work-related injury and ill health," said Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO in a statement prepared for the World Day. "We must aim to establish a preventative safety and health culture. Safety must become a reflex in all workplaces."
The number of job-related accidents and illnesses, which claim approximately two million lives each year, appears to be increasing due to rapid industrialization in some developing countries, according to new ILO estimates. Jukka Takala, Director of the ILO's SafeWork Programme, says the problem is worsening because in newly developing countries workers often come from rural areas and have few skills and very little training in safe work practices. "Most have never worked with heavy machinery, and some have little or no experience with industrial hazards such as electricity, so they don't know how dangerous these things can be," said Takala. "Yet these are elements of the kinds of jobs that are available for low-skilled workers in rapidly industrializing countries."
There are approximately 60,000 fatal accidents on construction sites each year, accounting for 17 per cent of all fatal workplace accidents, and workers in this sector are exposed to a number of health risks, such as exposure to asbestos-laden dusts, silica, and hazardous chemicals.
A recent ILO assessment of workplace accidents and illnesses shows that the risk of occupational disease has become the leading danger faced by people at work, responsible for 1.7 million work-related deaths each year and surpassing fatal accidents by four to one. Such illnesses include cancers from exposure to hazardous substances, musculoskeletal diseases, respiratory diseases, and communicable diseases caused by exposure to pathogens.