Industry news
Number of deaths at work increases
Posted Wed, 02 Nov 2011
Workplace deaths have increased in number over the last year but the amount of injuries sustained at work have dropped over the same period, new figures have shown.
A total of 171 people died at work in the year to March, an increase of 24 from the previous year when 147 were killed doing their jobs, according to figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). However, the number of major injuries like amputations, fractures and burns suffered by people at work during this period fell to approximately 24,700 from 26,268 in 2009/10.
Furthermore, other injuries that were serious enough to keep people off work for four days or longer, dropped to 90,653 from 96,427 in 2009/10. The number of illnesses caused or made worse by work, meanwhile, dropped to 1.2 million from 1.3 million in 2009/10.
Richard Jones, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, said: "It's disappointing that the drop in fatal injuries from last year hasn't been maintained - even one death is too many. We're concerned that this could be a delayed knock-on effect of recession and 'belt-tightening' - cutting back on training and maintenance - within organisations, which could now be finally beginning to bite."
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