Occupational health experts from WHO and countries have called for data and monitoring systems of workers’ health to improve monitoring of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
This global call was published in the Lancet as part of the Lancet Series on Work and Health.
The authors note that changes in the world of work, such as globalization, automation, digitization, new pandemics, environmental pollution and climate change, are causing new occupational health hazards and increasing health inequalities among workers. The experts call for data and monitoring systems to strengthen monitoring of health rights, the social and environmental determinants of health, and health inequalities among workers.The WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury have shown that 2 million people lost their lives due to occupational risk factors globally in 2016. Exposure to long working hours caused 40% of all work-related deaths, and work-related diseases (not injuries) caused 81% of work-related deaths. Indicators are available for 183 countries on the proportion of the population exposed to long working hours and on the number of deaths from work-related diseases from the WHO Occupational Burden of Disease Application.
The authors of the global call for workers health monitoring include the Minister of Health of Somalia and senior managers from WHO and the Ministries of Health or national institutes of occupational health of China, Italy, Nepal, South Africa, Togo and the United States of America.
The Lancet Series on Work and Health with the global call for workers’ health monitoring was launched in a panel discussion on 15 October 2023 at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany.