Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 84 
The figure below displays the relation between major risks and the health outcome in DALYs. The 
estimates of DALYS that are attributable to work vary between 6.8 million years (ICOH) and 4.4 million 
years (WHO/ILO), both for the EU27.  
 
Figure 26: Work-related DALYs – estimates by WHO/ILO and ICOH for the EU27  
 
 
Putting the absolute numbers of WHO/ILO in relation to the EU27 population above 16 years this results 
in approximately 1,172 lost life years per 100,000 working -age population (WHO/ILO). ICOH 
calculates in absolute numbers 6.8 million lost life years for th e labour force population, resulting in 
3,364 DALYs per 100,000 labour force. 
It can be concluded that despite methodological differences the estimates do not vary that much if the 
same reference population  is used in the calculation. Future research will contribute to a better 
attribution of the impact of work on these diseases. In the future, relevant disease groups will be 
incorporated in these estimates , that is,  the impact of work on the prevalence of mental diseases 
and of communicable diseases caused by biological agents needs to be incorporated.  
The next table shows the difference between major occupational risk factors and deaths  at the 
EU27 level and the global level. At EU27  level asbestos-related cancers are c learly the most frequent 
reason for work-related deaths with nearly 60% of all cases; the two next main causes are COPD (15.9%) 
and CVD (12.3%). The global situation is quite different. CVD account for nearly 40%, COPD for 24% 
and injuries for 19%.