HSE Press Release: E112:04 - 26 August 2004

Latest occupational ill health statistics

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) today publishes new statistics on work-related ill health in Great Britain. The figures, highlighted in Occupational Health Statistics Bulletin 2003/04, draw on the latest data from specialist doctors and other sources.

Key statistics include:

• Surveillance by specialist doctors in The Health and Occupation Reporting (THOR) network shows the most common types of work-related illness were musculoskeletal disorders - in particular those affecting the back and upper limbs - and mental ill health (mainly stress, depression and anxiety). Each of these accounted for around a third of the total incidence.
  
• The jobs carrying the highest risks of musculoskeletal disorders, according to reports from rheumatologists in 2001-03, were: metal plate workers, shipwrights and riveters, with an annual average incidence rate approximately 40 times the average for all occupations, typists (18 times the average) and road construction operatives (16 times).
  
• Consultant psychiatrists reported NCOs and other ranks in the UK armed forces as the occupation with the highest incidence rate of work-related mental ill health in 2001-03, at around 15 times the overall average, followed by medical practitioners (12 times).
  
• Other types of ill health with significant numbers of cases reported by doctors or compensated by the Government were lung diseases such as asthma and pneumoconiosis; contact dermatitis and other skin diseases; diarrhoeal and other infections; and disorders related to vibration or noise.
  
• Vehicle spray painters had the highest estimated incidence rate for occupational asthma in 2001-03, at roughly 80 times the average for all occupations, according to reports from disease specialists. Floral arrangers/florists had the highest rate for contact dermatitis (14 times the average) and care assistants/home carers for occupational infections (25 times the average).
  
• Each year an estimated 6,000 people (uncertainty range 3,000 to 12,000) die from cancer due to past exposures at work. In 2002 over 1,800 people died from mesothelioma, a cancer caused mainly by occupational exposure to asbestos, and at least as many again from asbestos-related lung cancer. Around 100 died from asbestosis and nearly 300 from other types of pneumoconiosis, mostly associated with coal dust and silica.
  
• In 2001-2003 an estimated 23,000 new cases per year were seen by specialist doctors in the THOR network, while nearly 8,000 per year were assessed for compensation under the Department for Work and Pensions' Industrial Injuries Scheme. Overall, at the last count in 2001/2, an estimated 2.3 million people were suffering from an illness which they believed was caused or made worse by their current or past work (based on the 2001/02 Self-reported Work-related Illness survey).

Notes to editors

1. Occupational Health Statistics Bulletin 2003/04 is available on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overall/ohsb0304.pdf.
2. More detailed data and commentaries are at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics
   The statistics are derived from a number of different sources. They draw on the latest surveillance data from specialist doctors in The Health and Occupation Reporting network (THOR), claims for disablement benefit under the Department for Work and Pensions' Industrial Injuries Scheme (IIS), and numbers of deaths from mesothelioma and other occupational diseases.
3. The statistics are classified according to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2000, the standard UK system for grouping jobs in terms of the kind of work performed and the skills required.
4. Statistics on all aspects of workplace health and safety, including headline results from the 2003/4 Self-reported Work-related Illness survey and progress against the targets set in the Revitalising Health and Safety strategy, will be given in Health and Safety Statistics Highlights 2003/04, scheduled for publication in November 2004. HSE is publishing some statistics now, three months ahead of the Highlights document, in line with the National Statistics principle that figures should be released as soon as possible after they have been compiled.
   

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