Keeping you in the know about hazardous substances

Every year, there are hundreds of deaths and many thousands of hospitalisations and ACC claims caused by long-term exposure to health risks at work. In fact, the burden on workers, their families and the wider economy from work-related ill-health far outweighs the burden from work-related injuries.

By law, businesses must manage both the health and safety risks caused by their work. That includes managing mental as well as physical health risks.  For WorkSafe, work-related health is about the way work can impact on worker health and the way worker health may impact on working safely.

WorkSafe needs to understand the impact of work-related disease so it can develop effective ways to improve worker health. It does this using work-related health estimates and burden of harm estimates informed by comprehensive international research.

These estimates are used to compare between illness caused by long-term exposure to hazards, and illness caused by acute injury.

WorkSafe have recently reviewed the work-related health estimates to take into account new international research and will use the revised estimates along with other information to inform decisions to improve worker health.

WorkSafe have also measured the burden of work-related harm using data from these estimates and information on the quality and length of life lost for each kind of work-related injury and illness.

Find out more about our revised estimates and see how the burden of work-related ill-health is far greater than that of acute injuries.

To find about more about WorkSafe’s revised estimates click here

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