Wars in different parts of the world have resulted in the death and suffering of many. Even as many
people die from wars, there are places/situations where much more deaths occur, far surpassing the
number of deaths recorded in global wars
The workplace is for most people, their source of livelihood, a place for social connections and much
more. But I doubt if most workers realise that each day they go to work, they are actually faced with
situations at work, which have resulted in more human deaths than have been recorded in wars.
From available and verifiable data, the workplace actually results in much more deaths than war.
Wars no doubt are tragic and have resulted in unnecessary and avoidable loss of lives, which is the
reason I believe that steps are consciously taken to avoid war. There are campaigns across the world
to avoid war and the loss of life that accompanies it. If the workplace actually kills more people than
war, workplace incidents should be talked about and addressed as much as or even more than wars.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has been at the forefront of championing various
initiatives to prevent incidents, injuries and cases of ill-health and diseases in the workplace. One of
the ways they do this is by publishing the number of people that die or get injured from workplace
accidents and diseases. According to the ILO, an estimated 2.8 million people die annually from
workplace accidents and diseases. Comparing that with data from research carried out by a team led
by Ziad Obermeyer on deaths that have occurred from wars, it becomes obvious how work is
actually killing more people than war. According to the research, about 378,000 people died in war
each year between 1985 and 1994. Even more recent data show that far less people are dying from
global conflicts than workplace incidents.
We often talk about the moral obligation to ensure that workers are kept safe and protected from
being killed by their work. This fact that much more workers are dying from their work than from
war underscores the need for a lot of attention to workplace safety and for all responsible persons
(government, employers and even workers) to play their part in ensuring safety for all workers and
upholding this moral need for everyone to be protected from harm.
REFERENCE
Worldwide War Deaths Underestimated - ABC News (go.com)
International Labour Organisation