Scotland struggling to control work-related ill health

Workers in Scotland are experiencing the greatest increase in work-related ill health in the UK, a damning report by the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has concluded.

Scotland has Britain’s highest rates of work-related mental ill health and growing asbestos-related cancers among women workers, the Tackling Scotland’s Workplace Ill-Health Crisis report has argued.

It has also seen a doubling in the incidence of work-related sickness in a decade, costing the Scottish economy more than £1bn per annum, BOHS has calculated.

A quarter of Scotland’s lung cancer deaths (its biggest cancer killer) have associations with workplace exposures.

Almost as many workers die from work-related respiratory illnesses alone as from the record number of alcohol-related deaths reported in Scotland this year, it has added.

BOHS has also highlighted the absence of an acknowledgement of occupational causes of disease across Scotland’s health strategies.

The society is urging MSPs to ask why the Scottish Government is not measuring the impacts of workplace health, especially as it affects women.

In a recently published analysis, BOHS identified that women across the UK are carrying the burden of work-induced illness, yet Scotland does not even collect or publish data on the impact of work on Scottish women’s health.

Mark Griffin MSP has been supporting the society’s work to ensure elected representatives are better informed about the impact of work-induced ill-health on Scotland and is the event sponsor.

In June, he lodged the Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill, which would link social security decisions in Scotland to expertise on workplace causes of ill health.

“Scotland boasts some of the world’s greatest expertise in workplace health protection, yet we have failed to assume responsibility for it at home,” he said.

“The devolution of industrial injuries benefit to Scotland marks a watershed moment for us to tackle head on Scotland’s workplace health crisis, and make the new benefit fit for modern workplaces.

“A new advisory council, that has at its heart the expertise of BOHS and the workers affected by workplace health crisis, is vital to modernise the benefit and make it fit for the 21st century.”

“If Scotland halved the preventable workplace lung cancers rate alone, it could double the spend on all childhood cancer care,” said BOHS president Alex Wilson.

“And that can be done by using vacuum cleaners, instead of brooms in dusty workplaces, and ventilation, rather than disposable dust masks where there are lots of fumes. For the most part, it’s as simple as that.”