World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024: Date, Theme, Poster, History, Hazards, Awareness, Quotes

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 will be celebrated on 28th of April. The day will be celebrated based on theme- A safe and healthy working environment is a fundamental principle and right at work.

Let’s know more about this special day regarding its theme, date, origin, types of hazards among other crucial information.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 Overview

World Day for Safety and Health at Work Origin

Over 2.3 million individuals die each year as a consequence of work-related accidents and illnesses. Injuries on the workplace occur at a rate of 317 million every year, many of which end in lengthy absences from the workplace. There is an enormous human and financial expense to this everyday challenge, which is approximated at 4% of global GDP annually due to unsafe workplace practices.

Check information about International Dance Day

From 2003, the International Labor Organization (ILO) started observing World Day for Safety and Health at Work to emphasize the importance of preventing workplace accidents and illnesses. As part of the International Labor Organization’s Strategic Planning on Health And safety At work, the International Workers’ Day event will be held.

By promoting liberty, fairness, protection, and human decency at employment, World Day for Safety and Health at Work aims to increase awareness of the importance of work safety. International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers is also held on April 28. Throughout 1996, the labour movement has coordinated this international event.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 Theme

The theme of World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 is “Workplace Stress: a collective challenge”.

Types of Hazards

• Physical hazards

Several individuals in the job are affected by this. The most prevalent job-related disability in the U. S. is hearing problems, which affects 22 million people due to their exposure to high levels of noise at workplace. Employees’ compensation costs for hearing impaired disabilities are assessed at $242 million per year. The majority of industrial injuries and deaths are caused by falls, particularly in the fields of excavation and mining; transportation; medical; and the maintenance and cleaning of workplaces. As a result of the many moving components, sharp corners and excessive heat included in machines, they have the potential to cause serious injury if operated in a dangerous manner.

• Biological hazards

This comprises harmful bacteria like viruses, bacterium and poisons generated by such species including anthrax. Biohazardous material impact employees in numerous sectors; influenza, for instance, represents a significant community of employees. Agricultural and maintenance workers are exposed to a variety of biohazards like animal attacks, toxic plants, and illnesses carried by animals like Norovirus and Ringworm when working outside. Health care employees, particularly veterinarian paramedics, risk exposure to blood-borne infections and numerous infectious illnesses, particularly those that are developing.

• Dangerous chemicals

Using these in the work might be hazardous. Toxic chemicals fall into a variety of categories, from neurotoxins to immunological compounds to dermatitis agents to carcinogens to fertility poisons to pervasive toxins. Regulation authorities, for example, impose limitations on workers’ exposure to chemical dangers. Because poisons may combine synergistically rather than just additively, researchers throughout the world are looking at the health impacts of chemical mixtures.

Even at low concentrations, several chemicals have been shown to pose a risk to human health when combined with other substances. Synergistic effects may play a key role in the development of cancer. Extremely modest regular intakes to harmful amounts of certain compounds may improve over time in the person, making them difficult to detect until it’s too late.

• Psychosocial hazards

There are dangers to employees’ mental and emotional health, like job uncertainty, excessive hours, and a poor job harmony. Cochrane researchers found that incorporating job-directed therapies into the diagnosis of distressed employees reduces the number of days they are absent from the workplace. This study also showed that adding cognitive behavioral therapy to main or industrial treatment and a “organized telephonic contact and treatment management system” to normal care are both beneficial in lowering sick absence days.

Check details of World Veterinary Day

Spreading Awareness

Participate and raise awareness about the need for a positive workplace on this day. The following options exist for achieving this goal:

• Making people aware at work by displaying posters.
• Utilizing hashtags and sharing social media content on this topic.
• Emphasizing topics on workplace health and safety in either physical or digital staff meetings.
• Participating in an online Workers’ Safety Day event near you.
• Arranging for a security specialist to appear at your place of business.

World Day for Safety and Health at Work 2024 Quotes

• “Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands.” (Jeff Cooper)
• “Leadership can help establish safety standards and values at an organizational level, creating a safety mindset and an ingrained culture to put safety at the foundation.” (Jackie Stewart)
• “An incident is just the tip of the iceberg, a sign of a much larger problem below the surface.” (Don Brown)
• “Safety is not an intellectual exercise to keep us in work. It is a matter of life and death. It is the sum of our contributions to safety management that determines whether the people we work with live or die.” (Sir Brian Appleton, safety assessor)
• “Don’t do something detrimental to yourself. In hurting yourself, you obviously do damage to you, but you are part of the team, so when you damage yourself via a poor choice, you are hurting the team as well.” (Matt Forck)

Frequently Asked Questions