Rise in cases of occupational disease among workers
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The number of workers contracting health conditions or disorders as a result of their work environment or activities climbed to 659 last year, up from 494 the year before, and 517 in 2019.
The occupational disease incidence rate increased to 20 cases for every 100,000 workers in 2021, from 15 in 2020 and 14.8 in 2019.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said the increase was largely due to medical assessments and cases being delayed from 2020, because of disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Work-related musculoskeletal disorders, which include injuries or disorders of the muscles, nerves, tendons, joints, cartilage and spinal discs, made up over half of all occupational disease cases last year.
The second-most common occupational disease was noise-induced deafness, followed by occupational skin diseases.
MOM said yesterday that the Workplace Health Surveillance programme will be enhanced to ensure that companies implement risk control measures to prevent these occupational diseases.
It noted that there is heavy reliance on mitigation efforts through the use of personal protective equipment instead of reducing or eliminating exposure to such risks.
"This is why MOM will target at-risk workplaces with noise hazards and exposure to hazardous chemicals (including combustible dust) and support such companies to put in place appropriate workplace health programmes to reduce or eliminate exposure to their workers," said the ministry.
