Work-related illnesses and injuries costs 2966 billion dollars globally over all work-years

These findings were made public at the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, 2017 by Ms. Christa Sedlatschek, director E.U-OSHA. The Congress which happens every three years took place at Singapore and was jointly organized by the ILO, International Social Security association (an ILO arm) and Ministry of Manpower, Singapore.

A data visualization explorer tool with data from all the WHO regions – on the value of occupational health and safety to the society was launched by E.U-OSHA. This tool has been in the making for few years, supported by ILO and WHO.

The Congress and its sessions were broadly based on three themes:

• Vision Zero – from vision to reality: A philosophy which emphasizes the role of ‘prevention’ of occupational accidents and illnesses and establishing a culture of prevention at every level within the organization.
• Healthy work – healthy life: Importance of integrated approaches to workers’ safety and health.
• People-centric prevention: Building OHS inclusive workplaces and creating sustainable strategies to protect people while taking into account gender, demographic changes and education.

Another unique initiative launched with this event by ILO was SafeYouth@Work which would focus on the inclusion of young workers (18-24) within the OSH domain to realise the above three themes.

Courtesy : Ministry of Information Singapore