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Accidents at work carry an enormous human and societal cost. Bombarded with facts and figures from the media on a daily basis from all walks of life, it is easy to forget the terrible pain and illnesses that many people are suffering apparently caused by employment.
Reviewing latest statistics recorded and published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), it is worth reflecting on the seriousness and scale of work-related accidents and sickness in the UK.
A total of 2.2 million people have illnesses said to be caused or worsened by work. That is a huge figure. This figure is about 3-4 per cent of the British population, or nearly 10 per cent of the working population.
While some people are likely to be 'swinging the lead' where they are pretending to be ill to avoid work, or perhaps to make false personal injury claims, so much actual recorded suffering cannot simply be invented or made up, can it?
Let's keep looking at the figures - many thousands have died from occupational lung diseases and cancers; about 1000 people out of every 100,000 report a work-related injury that's 274,000 people injured at work according to the HSE.
And you can't fake the following tragic statistic 241 workers were killed at work.
Out of a workforce of 24 million, 36 million days were said to be lost due to work-related injury and ill health.
Seeing the statistics in this light, it looks like an epidemic. The workplace is causing pain and suffering on a massive scale.
So what's being done to help workers? As a journalist, my initial impression is "not enough, by a mile". That said, the great and good in UK society appear to have at least some of the issues in their sights.
Last year, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions John Hutton (now James Purnell) unveiled a review of the health of the working age population, assessing current health levels and providing a benchmark to measure future workplace health improvements.
He said, "Many millions of working days are lost every year due to occupational ill health and injury, leading to lower quality of life and economic prospects for many people, and reducing the productivity of the workforce.
"Preventing people from becoming ill at work and acting to support and rehabilitate those who do become ill - is not only right for individuals, it is also crucial for the success of business, for a strong economy and a strong society."
The review was published in March this year. Unveiling the report called "Working for a healthier tomorrow", review leader, Dame Carol Black, national director for health and work, revealed illness and disability were costing Britain more than £100 billion a year.
Ominously, she warned that the drain on the economy from benefits claimants and people who miss work through ill health is "unsustainable" and threatens the fabric of society.
The review was designed to increase understanding of the beneficial link between work and health, and to help identify where the greatest improvements can be made to the health of those who are in or want to return to work.
Times columnist David Bolchover delivered an insightful view of the accident at work and work-related illness issues just after the review was published Sickness at work: the big story. In short, he reckoned self-employment and entrepreneurship should help shift people away from employer dependency.
And Dame Black also starts to show an accurate perception and understanding of the problem, to my mind, when she highlights how many people of working age seem to have little to aspire to.
She said, "There are too many people with no expectation that their lives are going to get better, no structure, no shape to their lives at all.
"I worry about the way these patterns will be replicated, whether it is about young, single mothers whose children don't understand the role of work, or about truant children becoming more likely to be workless when they reach adulthood."
Her review, which aims to improve the health of those in work and to get more people off sickness benefits, warned that mental health problems, such as depression, place huge financial strain on the economy; due to sick leave costs, lowered productivity and additional social and health care.
This appears to be a highly complex issue and easy solutions may elude many dedicated people working to solve the work-related illness problems and the high number of accidents at work. But let's hope and pray they make some good progress it seems the UK's future health, worldly status, quality of life and prosperity depends on that progress.
