The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) director John Howard, MD has taken the opportunity presented by Workers’ Memorial Day to highlight some of the ways in which the agency is making employment safer for workers in America.

Monday April 28 is International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, or more simply Workers’ Memorial Day. This year more than fourteen million people across the globe are taking part in over 13,000 activities in support of people working in dangerous conditions. The message for this year’s Workers’ Memorial Day is “Good Occupational Health for All Workers.”

Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), says that all records set by previous years’ activities for the commemoration day have been exceeded, but “Unfortunately, this unprecedented mobilization reflects a wide-scale deterioration of the occupational health and safety realities for millions of the world’s workers.”

More than 2.2 million workers die, and 160 million are injured every year.

John Howard says, “Although much progress has been made since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970, more remains to be accomplished. Research is a vital part of this national mission, and NIOSH is proud of its role in helping to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths.”

Howard also pointed out that traditionally hazardous industries—particularly those involving heavy physical labor—are still high-risk. Workers in manufacturing, mining, construction, agriculture, and commercial fishing are at high risk.

Howard noted too that work-related illnesses such as asbestosis, silicosis, and mesothelioma are still prevalent due to work place exposure to asbestos, coal dust, lead, and other toxins.

Part of NIOSH’s work involves researching, testing, and implementing new and more effective intervention measures to prevent work-place illness and injury. In addition, NIOSH focuses on identifying new potential sources of work-related hazards.

Workers all over the world face unsafe conditions: from exposure to asbestos and other harmful chemicals, to the risk of injury or death in dangerous occupations.

Recently the plight of sanitation workers was highlighted, for example, in a report entitled “In Harm’s Way,” which was the collected results of a study carried out by the National Commission of Inquiry into the Worker Health and Safety Crisis in the Solid Waste Industry and the Teamsters Union.

The study included analysis that showed sanitation workers were frequently exposed to asbestos, medical waste, and other potentially harmful substances, and also faced the possibility of severe injury when using waste management machinery.

John Howard says that educating the work force is still a major challenge in improving work-place safety, and emphasizes the work NIOSH is doing to explore new ways to educate workers.

“For example, what approaches will be effective for young workers accustomed to interactive, computer-based or video-based instruction? What approaches will be effective for foreign-born workers, for whom the toll of fatal work injuries reached a record high number in 2006, according to the revised BLS estimates?”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.