Work-related accidents: worse than war (2007)

The figures on work-related accidents in Italy are dramatic and highlight the ineffectiveness of legislative measures to protect workers. To understand the extent of the phenomenon of deaths in the workplace, we only need to look at a few figures:

– from April 2003 (the year the second Gulf War began) to April 2007, 3,520 coalition soldiers lost their lives during the war. From 2003 to October 2006, 5,252 people died at work in Italy;

– the 2000-2006 historical series shows that an average of 1,376 people dies each year in Italy as a result of work-related accidents. Just under 70 per cent of workers (around 850) lose their lives in falls from the scaffolding in the construction industry, in tractor overturning in agriculture, in a road accident in goods transport due to excessive driving hours. The average age of fatal accidents is around 37 years, which means that, since life expectancy at birth averages 79.12 years, each accident results in a loss of life of 42 years. Multiplying this figure by the total number of fatalities, the years of life lost amount to just under 58,000.