04 July 2006
Lucie Ponting

Illness rates among UK workers could be almost double the existing estimates used by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the rate of injuries resulting in absence of four or more days may be almost 40% higher, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 workers published by the executive.

The survey also confirms that occupational stress is a key concern in UK workplaces, topping the list of workers' worries, followed by lifting or carrying heavy loads, slips and trips, and exposure to dust and fumes.

The survey is part of the HSE's Workplace Health and Safety Survey (WHASS) programme - a series of large-scale countrywide employee and employer surveys designed to find out how health and safety is managed in the UK's workplaces.

Workers in this first WHASS exercise reported suffering far more workplace accidents and work-related illnesses than respondents to the government's quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS) - currently the HSE's main source of accident and ill-health rates. The estimated ill-health rate (including longstanding as well as new cases) in the last year is 9,800 per 100,000 workers, more than double the 2004-05 LFS rate.

The estimated rate of injury resulting in four days absence or more is 1,700 per 100,000, compared with an LFS rate of 1,200. For major injury, the survey's rate is more than seven times that under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) in 2004-05, and the rate of over-three-day injury is about three times greater.

A bigger problem

The HSE has cautioned that the higher figures for ill health, injury and absence could reflect the self-selecting nature of the survey, pointing out that people suffering ill health and injury are more likely to respond.

But the TUC is unconvinced. "This report confirms what many people have said all along," said the congress's head of safety Hugh Robertson. "Occupational ill health is a much bigger problem than HSE's earlier estimates have indicated." 

WHASS aims to give the HSE a clearer picture of what is happening on the ground to improve its interventions and hit national targets. John Hodgson, the HSE's head of profession for statistics, says the idea goes back to a December 2000 workshop on how to measure progress against the goals in the government and Health and Safety Commission's Revitalising Health and Safety strategy. Participants decided the HSE needed new data sources, particularly about perceptions of risk and control.  

The first worker telephone survey by the British Market Research Bureau late last year generated 10,016 responses (a response rate of 26%) from people over 16 years of age who had worked in the previous 12 months. The initial report concentrates on workers' views about workplace hazards, which the HSE says are less likely to be vulnerable to any response bias.

Stress on top

Stress is by far workers' biggest concern; more than a fifth are "quite or very" concerned that this could cause them harm. Two-fifths of those exposed to stress think the risk could be realistically reduced but less than a third say their employers have acted. The next most common worries are carrying loads, slipping or tripping and dust or fume exposure; each of which worry around 9% of those polled. Other concerns are computer use (7.1%), skin contact with chemicals (6%), work at height (4.2%), noise (4.8%), hand/arm vibration (2.1%) and whole-body vibration (1.6%).

Some 7% of workers fear physical attack or threats from the public. But considering the survey only directed this question at people who had suffered attacks or threats in the past year, this figure seems very low. A similar question in the 2002-03 British Crime Survey estimated that 15% of the working population was "fairly or very" worried about workplace violence; this would put violence second only to stress as a concern.

Realistic reduction

Almost half (47%) the workers who have suffered slip or trips think this hazard could be reduced in their workplace; with 46% and 45% respectively thinking manual handling and exposure to dust or fumes could be better managed. Skin contact with chemicals, computer use and driving or working around vehicles are the hazards workers think are least avoidable.

For Hodgson, one of the survey's surprises is the "apparent strength of opinion" that traditional health and safety risks are declining. There are clear majorities who agree with the statement that risks of falls from a height, dust and fume exposure, skin contact with chemicals and slipping or tripping have lessened over the last year. The only hazard with a clear majority for the opposite opinion (that the risk has increased) is stress.

Training time

The survey also asked about training. Almost three-quarters of those whose jobs involved manual handling had received training. Other areas where 60% or more had received training are skin contact with chemicals, work at height and computer use. Employers are least likely to train workers in dust or fume exposure (42%), whole-body vibration (41%) and noise (33%).

The HSE will be releasing other survey findings, for example on industry patterns and hazard prevention. It plans to continue the WHASS worker and employer surveys, probably once a year.

For the first results, see www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/sources.htm#whass 
 

Categories:
HSE, Sickness absence, Article