Press Release: Reducing work-related accidents and illness through better risk assessment

Every year 5,720 people die in the European Union as a consequence of work-related accidents, according to EUROSTAT figures. Besides that, the International Labour Organisation estimates that an additional 159,500 workers in the EU die every year from occupational diseases. Taking both figures into consideration, it is estimated that every three-and-a-half minutes somebody in the EU dies from work-related causes. Most of these accidents and diseases are preventable, and the first step in preventing them is risk assessment. That was the message of 'Healthy Workplaces. Good for you. Good for business.', the Europe-wide information campaign on risk assessment, launched by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). The campaign focused especially on high-risk sectors such as construction, healthcare and agriculture, and on the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. It will run over two years (2008-09).