The Vega Engineering Workplace Safety Observatory of Mestre, has been at the forefront of worker safety in Italy for three decades, underlines the value of World Day for Health and Safety at Work which is celebrated on 28 April with the publication of the 2023 annual report on workplace accident statistics.
And launching an appeal to all those who deal with security in our country.
STATISTICS OF FATAL ACCIDENTS AT WORK: THE MAP OF THE ACCIDENT INDEX BY REGION
Since May 2021, the Observatory has developed a new graphic representation of Italy with color zoning, starting from INAIL data on accidents, to photograph the real risk of fatal accidents at work, region by region. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which for months has drawn the map of Italy in colour, describing the emergency situation resulting from the phenomenon of deaths at work in a clear and effective way, the Observatory has decided to use the same colors (red, orange, yellow and white) to describe the degree of accident risk experienced in everyday working life. The new Zoning of Italy is outlined with respect to the working population, parameterized on a national average incidence.
Sicilian data
Sicily falls within the “orange band” zone among the Italian regions with sand the victims on work in the region.
As regards the Sicilian provinces the “black jersey” belongs to Palermo than in just two months has three victims at work on 335,191 employed, while the province of Syracuse with over 110 thousand employed in the first two months of 2024 has not recorded any workplace deaths; zero toalso in Ragusa, Enna, Caltanissetta and Trapani.
While recording a victim at work in the provinces of Catania, Messina and Agrigento.
General data
To finish in red zone in February 2024 with an incidence higher than +25% compared to the national average (Im=Average incidence index, equal to 3.9 workplace deaths per million workers) are: Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige and Calabria. In the orange zone: Puglia, Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo and Piedmont. In the yellow zone: Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Tuscany, Sardinia, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Liguria and Marche. In the white area: Umbria, Veneto, Basilicata and Molise.
The zoning used by the Observatory in the Italian regions according to the following color scale:
• White: regions with an accident incidence lower than 75% of the national average incidence
• Yellow: regions with an accident incidence between 75% of the average incidence
national and the national average value
• Orange: regions with an accident incidence between the national average value and
125% of the national average incidence
• Red: regions with an accident incidence higher than 125% of the average incidence
national.
Total injury reports are growing by 7.2% compared to the period of February 2023. From the 86,483 recorded at the end of February 2023, in 2024 they rose to 92,711.
Early 2024 is the Construction sector to record the highest number of worker deaths: I’m 16. Followed by the Transport and Warehousing sector (9 deaths), Commerce and Manufacturing Activities (7 deaths).
The age range is more affected by fatal accidents at work that between 55 and 64 years (33 out of a total of 91). While women who lost their lives for work reasons in February 2024 are 4, while 5 lost their lives en route, i.e. along the home-work route. The youngest instead, they tend to get injured more than older people
without necessarily serious consequences. This can be partly explained by less work experience but, at the same time, greater reactivity in avoiding serious consequences.
There are 21 foreigners who died while working, while 9 died due to an accident while traveling. Foreigners recorded a double incidence compared to Italians both when working, commuting and also regarding accident reports.
Monday is the day of the week when the most workplace deaths occur i.e. the one in which the most fatal accidents occurred in the first two months of the year (around 22% of cases).
“A first dark two-month period for deaths at work. At the end of February 2024 there were 119 victims, 19 more than at the end of February 2023. And the increase is more than alarming when we are talking exclusively about deaths that occurred at work: +24.7%. As always, in addition to the numbers, what is striking is the higher incidence of mortality among those over 65 and, as has happened in recent years, also the data relating to the incidence of mortality among foreign workers: even more than double compared to Italians”, comments Mauro Rossato, president of the Vega workplace safety and environmental observatory in Mestre, introducing the investigation into the emergency developed by his team of experts.
“After the tragic boom in injury reports in the time of Covid (between 2020 and 2021), between 2022 and 2023 the reports decreased more than significantly following the end of the health emergency. Now, however – underlines the president Mauro Rossato – the decreases ‘inflated’ since the end of the pandemic unfortunately leave room for a new increase in which there are no longer viruses to justify the worrying trend, but only job insecurity in our country”.
Data source: Annual report 2023 Vega Work Safety Observatory
