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October 11, 2016

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Interactive map reveals the most dangerous places to work in the UK

Latest research from the Health and Safety Executive show that across the UK, 23.3 million days were lost due to work-related ill health and 4.1 million days were lost due to workplace injuries, costing the economy up to £14.3 billion a year. To show the scale of the problem, Vero Solutions have created an interactive map that reveals the regions in the UK with the most work related deaths & injuries.

 

The five UK regions with the highest amount of ill health incidences in the workplace are::

  1. East Midlands – 4620
  2. Wales – 4400
  3. Yorkshire and Humber – 4350
  4. South West – 4320
  5. South East – 4190

The five UK regions with the highest amount of fatal injuries in the workplace are:

  1. Scotland – 20
  2. North West – 20
  3. South West – 19
  4. Yorkshire and Humber – 15
  5. East Midlands – 14

The five UK regions with the highest amount of non-fatal injuries in the workplace include:

  1. East Midlands – 2700
  2. Wales – 2,640
  3. South West – 2360
  4. West Midlands – 2270
  5. East – 2240

The interactive map also reveals the sectors with the most reported injuries, including agriculture, forestry and fishing (4,200) and construction(3,100) and finally food services (2,850) – as you’d expect with industries that involve increased amounts of manual labour and risk taking.

Common health conditions that are caused or made worse by work include:

  1. Work-related stress.9 million days were lost due to work-related stress, with high rates in health and social care professionals, and education professional occupations.
  2. Work-related Musculoskeletal disorders (affecting muscles, joints and tendons in all parts of the body). Manual handling was listed as the main work activity causing this disorder, with 9.5 million days lost mainly in building trades, nurses, personal care and skilled agriculture occupations.
  3. Work-related Respiratory disease. Almost 30,000 people who worked in the last year report they currently have breathing/lung problems caused or made worse by work. General working environment and dusts from stone/cement/bricks etc are listed as the main cause of self-reported respiratory disease.
  4. Work-related skin disease. Severity of skin disease varies widely from minor irritation to severe cases of dermatitis, as well as skin cancers. Working with wet hands and soaps/cleansing agents are the most common cause of skin problems like dermatitis.

Tim Young, Director at Vero Solutions, comments: “These statistics show why the right health and safety provisions should always be in place. The economy as a whole is impacted by the amount of time people are taking off due to ill-health, as well as businesses themselves. If you are working in one of the ‘danger’ regions of the UK, ensure that your employer is responsible and is following all relevant health and safety measures as well as making sure you are following all existing procedures to keep yourself safe. Despite the great strides and improvements made over the last 40 years since Britain’s health and safety regime was established, there is still more that can be done and not all at a great cost to businesses.”

For more information on health and safety in the workplace and the technology available to reduce workplace losses, visit http://vero.solutions.

 

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Bryan Richards
Bryan Richards
7 years ago

We did a similar infographic on 2015 which corroborates this article and provides additional graphical displays http://www.arinite.co.uk/arinite-health-safety-tracker-infographic/

The link between demographic and economic trends and accident statistics is well known. Of course these factors cannot be influenced by safety practitioners, but we should all have a healthy awareness of the implications for risk management.