This year, more than fourteen million people are taking part in activities to highlight the dangers faced by workers all over the world. Every year, more than 2.2 million workers die, and 160 million are injured, because they work in unsafe conditions.

Around 13,000 different activities are planned across the globe for this year’s International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers, which falls on Monday April 28.

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.”

The message for this year’s commemoration day is “Good Occupational Health for All Workers.” Many different organizations, including governments, trade union organizations, employers, and World Health Organization groups are taking part in activities in more than 120 different countries.

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.

When it comes to asbestos exposure, many types of workers are at risk. Workers in certain types of industrial plants may be at risk of exposure if the plant was built prior to the 1980s, due to the addition of asbestos to many different types of construction materials. Construction workers, custodial and maintenance workers, electricians, and road workers are just some of the groups of people who may still be at risk of asbestos exposure, depending on where they work.

Many thousands of people have already died from asbestos-related diseases that developed as a result of workplace exposure: even though the peak incidence of asbestos use was last century, the effects will continue to be felt for several decades, due to the long latency period of asbestos-related diseases.

Even if you don’t work in an at-risk occupation, and even if you don’t know anyone who does, Monday April 28 is a great time to show your support for people who were or still are at risk of exposure to asbestos or other harmful substances in the work place.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 4:56 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.