Burden of occupational diseases

Introduction

Work-related diseases cause great losses to employees, companies and society at large. The work-related attributable fraction (AF) of many diseases may be considerable although it does not always mean that the disease is also recognised as an occupational disease. About 26% of low back pain has been estimated to be work-related [1] and 3.2% to 4.6% of all cancer deaths are due to occupational exposure[2]. Different methods have been developed for the evaluation of economic costs to companies and society. Disease-adjusted life years (DALYs) are often used as a measure to estimate the burden of occupational and work-related diseases.…