Anoesis — The Problem with Occupational Disease
Abstract No:
1094
Abstract Type:
Professional Poster
Authors:
J Elias1
Institutions:
1Elias Occupational Hygiene Consulting, Winnipeg, Please Select
Presenter:
Mr. John Elias, MPH, CIH, ROH, FAIHA
Elias Occupational Hygiene Consulting
Elias Occupational Hygiene Consulting
Description:
Anoesis may explain what is happening in the design and delivery of many safety and health programs. This is demonstrated when safety and health regulatory agencies report on their success in reducing workplace deaths and lost time. Unfortunately they appear unaware that they underestimate work-related diseases by one to two orders of magnitude even though this information has been available for over 20 years. The poster is intended to initiate discussion around the underestimation of work-related disease even by safety and health professionals. There appears to be a passive receptiveness of compensation safety and health data without understanding that for all practical purposes it does not include health.
Situation / Problem:
Anoesis is: a) a consciousness that is pure passive receptiveness without understanding or intellectual organization of the materials presented; b) a state of mind consisting of pure sensation or emotion without cognitive content; c) an emotional response to something without understanding; and d) the reception of impressions or sensations (by the brain) without any intellectual understanding. The problem appears to be that many safety and health programs are based on occupational diseases not work-related diseases. Occupational disease is defined in legislation as illnesses that are the determinant cause of the lost time or death, and accepted for compensation. Work-related diseases are any diseases where work-related aspects increase the risk of disease together with other factors.There is a difference of one to two orders of magnitude between these two methods of counting workplace illness. The failure to account for work-related illnesses in program planning has an impact on individual workers with preventable disease, and the costs of these unrecognized preventable diseases that are taken up by the individual (and family), healthcare, and the general economy.
Methods:
Annual reports from Manitoba Workplace Safety & Health (regulator) and the Workers Compensation Board were compared to estimates calculated from published incidence rates from several different jurisdictions. There appeared to be one to two orders of magnitude difference between official published safety and health data and estimates using newer technologies. The differences between traditional and newer methods of estimating lost-time incidents and deaths are orders of magnitude with health related lost-time and deaths being the more significant of the two.
Results / Conclusions:
Good data is essential in any planning attempt. If your data addresses less than 90% of the problem it is unlikely that an effective plan of action will be developed. It is essential that work-related data be used rather than occupational data when developing prevention programs for workplace safety and health. For the large part work-related disease focuses on chronic diseases, cancers and respiratory diseases. Many of these diseases show up in the later years of employment, or after retirement, and then are not recognized by the compensation system. Basing prevention programs on work-related diseases will change the emphasis of safety and health programs from reducing compensation claims to protecting workers. There will be a continuing cost to individuals and society if these unrecognized chronic preventable occupational diseases are not controlled. The Alberta Health Services estimated that there were 217-1500 new occupational cancers/year and 786-5400 current cases/year. The cost of these occupational cancers was estimated to be $15.6 million for direct costs to the medical system and $64.1 million to Alberta for indirect costs. Too many safety and health people look at falling safety and health rates and feel good without recognizing that their data does not does not contain lost time and workplace deaths due to work-place related disease and is 10-100 times higher than they believe and may be rising.
Primary Topic:
Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology
Secondary Topics:
IH Profession
Management/Leadership
Co-Authors
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Acknowledgements and References
List any additional people who worked on the project or provided guidance and support along with details on the role they played in the research. (Please include first name, last name, organization, city, state and country).
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