Expert Insights, Respiratory Protection SeriesWhat Could Occupational Lung Disease Cost You and Your Business?
Our respiratory experts take a look at the all the ramifications of occupational lung disease, both health and financial, direct and indirect. Given these 5 Costs of Ignoring Respiratory Hazards, can your business afford to risk not doing enough to prevent employees suffering?
1. We’ll start with the obvious one: Contracting occupational lung disease can cause premature death.
The HSE estimates around 12,000 people die from occupational lung disease each year. That’s lung disease caused by contaminated air they have breathed while at work. 40% of these deaths are due to the legacy of asbestos, still being removed from buildings today, leading to related lung cancers and mesothelioma. Another 32% are from COPD and 22%, non-asbestos related cancers, due to occupational exposure to dust, fumes, and chemicals.
2. Even if you don’t die from lung disease contracted at work, it could cost you your long-term health, both physical and mental.
Respirable silica is the material raised from many kinds of stone working. A silca particle may be typically less than 10 micrometers (or 10 microns) in diameter, fine enough to penetrate deep into the lungs when inhaled. Silicosis is the resulting occupational lung disease, the symptoms of which are sometimes likened to a slow suffocation. Silica dust particles become trapped in the lung tissue causing inflammation and scarring. The particles also reduce the ability of the lungs to take in oxygen. Silicosis results in permanent lung damage and is a progressive, debilitating, and sometimes fatal disease. Some patients may require a lung transplant. Sufferers are also at an increased risk of developing other serious diseases. There is no cure.
Of the 19,000 new cases reported every year:
- 20% suffered the effects of dust from stone, cement, brick, or concrete at their workplaces
- 13% had lung damage from airborne materials from spray painting or foam product manufacturing
- 10% reported exposure to airborne materials during welding, soldering, or metal cutting/grinding work
- 7% were inhaling dust from flour, grain, cereal, animal feed, or straw
- About 20% of workers experienced illness or worsened symptoms due to environmental conditions such as heat, cold, humidity, or dry air.
These are some of the life limiting and lifelong diseases caused by occupational lung disease:
| Site hazards | Resulting Respiratory Diseases
|
- Dust from cutting, drilling or sanding concrete, wood, brick, stone & cement Gases and fine particles from welding and hot cutting
- Fumes, dust and nickel compounds in foundries and manufacturing processes
- Biomass particles (dust and microorganisms) from working with grain or animal feed in agriculture or food production
- Chemicals from spray painting
- Gases in extreme working environments such as air conditioning, water supply, sewage
| Long Latency:
- Pneumoconiosis
- Mesothelioma
- COPD
- Silicosis
- Asbestosis
- Pleural Plaques
Short Latency:
- Allergic Alveolitis
- Work Related Asthma
|
3. The financial cost to both the sufferer and to the taxpayer is significant.
The annual cost of treating occupational lung diseases is enormous. The British Occupational Hygiene Society estimates the cost of a single instance of workplace COPD to be £180,000, and the total cost of 4,000 new cases of COPD annually to be over £700 million. Treatments, hospitalisations and other related healthcare services for all occupational lung diseases are variously estimated to cost the NHS somewhere between £1.9 billion and as much as £11 billion. That is to say nothing of the welfare benefit cost to the state of individuals suffering from the condition.
4. Huge business expenses, although technically an indirect result, are a hidden component of the true cost of lung disease.
These include the losses in production and associated income through staff sickness, reduced hours, staff replacement costs, potential safety lapses due to unwell workers, corporate image damage…. The British Thoracic Society estimated the indirect costs of respiratory disease to be £3.64 billion in 2004/5 – an equivalent cost today would be £6.55 billion or even more.
5. Risk of huge legal costs.
One glance at a google search reveals pages and pages of legal firms offering their services to sue employers for negligence following occupational lung disease diagnoses. And with an estimated 19,000 new cases still being reported each year, there are plenty of cases to follow up.
There is also the risk of significant fines being imposed. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) prosecutes companies that fail to control the hazard and protect workers from exposure to occupational hazards, including silica dust and many other substances that can cause lung disease. These are two recent examples of large fines charged to businesses who simply failed to put control measures in place:
Wood supplier hit with £40,000 fine for failing to protect workers from dust
Stone workshop floor covered in hazardous dust results in £60,000 fine
Fines following injury can range from a starting point of £250,000 to £10,000,000+ for large businesses, and £2,400,000 to £10,000,000+ for high culpability offences.
The societal financial costs and the business expenses detailed above have a significant impact on all of us, from individuals and families, to businesses and the overall economy.
It is a moral and a business certainty: These costs are too significant a risk to your business to ignore. Even if you have respiratory equipment, are you certain it is compliant with current regulations, fully maintained, and used correctly? Here are some questions you should be asking to ensure you are fully compliant:
- Do we follow manufacturer recommendations on maintenance of respiratory equipment?
- Do we have follow a clear filter change schedule? Read our expert insight on filter maintenance here.
- If tight fitting masks are used, do any of the users have beards, skin tags or moles, piercings or spectacles? If so, you may need to look at alternative respiratory protection.
- If tight fitting masks are worn, have the users been professionally face fitted?
- Is our equipment compliant with current regulations?
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Contact the specialists at Anchor Safety today to discuss your equipment – they will offer independent and unbiased information and won’t sell you a solution that you don’t need.