Fonte Hazards.org ( Hazards, number 164, 2023 ) che ringraziamo
From natural fibres to furry critters, creepy crawlies to coronavirus, biological hazards in the workplace are a major and seriously under-estimated problem. Hazards editor Rory O’Neill says unions need to be vigilant for the infections, lung diseases, cancers and other related conditions that see half a million workers worldwide die each year.
Global estimates on biological risks at work, based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) data and published online in the journal Safety and Health at Work on 5 October 2023, identify a major problem that has remained under the occupational health radar.
Exposure to biological hazards at work accounted for over 550,000 deaths in 2021, the most recently reliable figures show, considerably higher than the annual toll from work-related fatalities. The new estimates indicate there has been an increase in disability adjusted life years (DALYs) attributable to biological exposures at work.
Related conditions included infectious diseases, restrictive and obstructive lung diseases, cancers, poisonings and injuries. Classic occupational diseases include cotton lung (byssinosis), farmers’ lung (fibrosing alveolitis) and bakers’ asthma.
Several occupational conditions, including cancers and lung diseases caused by biological exposures at work, are named explicitly in ILO’s List of Occupational Diseases (Recommendation 194). Hundreds of additional exposures to irritants, sensitisers, carcinogens and other hazards fall within the list’s qualifying terms for recognition as occupational diseases, causing conditions from asthma and cancer to anaphylaxis.