August 18, 2006—The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published the results from its Self Reported Work-related Illness Survey 2004/2005. These results suggest that an estimated two million British workers suffer ill health, which they believe was caused or made worse by work.
The estimated number of working days lost due to work-related illness during the 12 month period (2004/2005) was 28.4 million. On average, each person suffering took an estimated 23 days off work in that period; averaged across the working population this represents an annual loss of 1.2 days per worker.
Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) followed by stress, depression or anxiety were the most commonly reported type of work-related illnesses.
MSDs are the biggest cause of work-related ill health with around one million people suffering MSDs that they believe was caused or made worse by work. Around half a million people claim to be suffering from work-related stress, the next biggest cause of occupational ill health. The average annual days lost per case was actually higher for stress, depression or anxiety (31 days) than for MSDs (20 days).
The full report can be downloaded from the HSE Web site.
