The annual World Day for Safety and Health at Work promotes the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases globally. Observed by the International Labour Organization (ILO) since 2003, the day is an opportunity to raise awareness and focus international attention on the magnitude of the problem and on how promoting and creating a safety and health culture can help reduce the number of work-related deaths and injuries.
According to the ILO, every day 6,300 people die as a result of occupational accidents or work-related diseases; more than 2.3 million deaths per year. In addition, 317 million accidents occur on the job annually, many of these resulting in extended absences from work.
National occupational safety and health culture is one in which the right to a safe and healthy working environment is respected at all levels, where governments, employers and workers actively participate in securing a safe and healthy working environment through a system of defined rights, responsibilities and duties, and where the highest priority is accorded to the principle of prevention.