Umbria in the Red Zone for Deaths at Work: A Comment on the Data Updated to April 2024
The first third of 2024 has passed and the emergency of workplace deaths continues to be described by tragic numbers. If the situation remains unchanged, by the end of 2024 we could count over 1,000 victims at work. From January to April 2024, 268 victims were recorded, four more than in the same period in 2023. Commuting deaths, i.e. those that occur during the home-work journey, increased by 8.8% compared to the year previous.
These are the words of Mauro Rossato, President of the Vega Engineering Workplace Safety and Environment Observatory of Mestre, who commented on the latest investigation into the emergency prepared by his team of experts. The incidence, which indicates the number of workers who died while working in a given area for every million employed in the same area, is considered the most significant risk indicator for workers in our country.
At the end of April 2024, the regions that end up in the red zone, with an incidence higher than 25% compared to the national average, are: Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria, Puglia, Campania and Calabria. In the yellow zone we find: Sardinia, Tuscany, Sicily, Lombardy, Piedmont and Lazio. In the white zone: Liguria, Abruzzo, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Basilicata, Veneto, Marche and Molise.
The phenomenon of fatal accidents affects older workers more. In fact, the highest incidence is recorded in the group of workers over sixty-five (34.9), followed by the group of workers between 55 and 64 years of age (13.5).
Foreigners who died at work in the first quarter were 48 out of a total of 206, with a risk of death at work almost triple that of Italians. In fact, foreigners record 20.2 deaths for every million employed people, compared to the 7.5 of Italians who lose their lives while working.
At the end of April 2024, there were 268 victims at work in Italy, of which 206 during work and 62 while commuting. Lombardy continues to be the region with the highest number of victims at work (33), followed by Emilia-Romagna (28), Campania (20), Puglia (17), Lazio (16), Tuscany and Piedmont (13 ), Trentino-Alto Adige (12), Veneto and Sicily (11), Calabria (6), Sardinia and Umbria (5), Liguria (4), Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Abruzzo and Marche (3), Valle d’Aosta (2) and Basilicata (1). No fatal accidents occurred in Molise.
The Construction sector is the one that records the highest number of deaths at work, with 41 victims. This is followed by Manufacturing Activities (25), Transport and Warehousing (19) and Commerce (11).
Total injury reports increased by 3.6% compared to April 2023, from 187,324 to 193,979. The sector with the highest number of total complaints is Manufacturing Activities (22,299), followed by Construction (10,913), Healthcare (10,873), Transport and Warehousing (10,072) and Commerce (9,759).
The injury reports of female workers in April 2024 were 70,733, while those of male colleagues were 123,246. Reports of accidents at work among Italians are 133,297, while among foreigners there are 31,952. The age group most affected when working and traveling is between 45 and 54 years old with 41,613 complaints, equal to 21.5% of the total.
The incidence of fatal accidents indicates the number of workers who died while working in a given area (region or province) for every million employed people present in the same area. This index allows us to compare the accident phenomenon between different regions, even though they are characterized by a different working population.
