Risk news

There is little financial incentive for employers to tackle occupational asthma, according to a new report this week, with the costs falling mainly on individual workers and taxpayers.

Research, carried out on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), examined the "true cost" of occupational asthma in the UK. Overall, it concluded that employers were "imposing a significant external cost on the rest of society".

The report suggested that the current situation of employers having "little incentive" to reduce the incidence of new cases of occupational asthma, "would warrant government intervention."

The study found that the "average" employee suffering from occupational asthma lost between 3.5 and 4.5 working days per year. A worker with more severe symptoms was estimated to lose around 10 days per year.

Individual burden
Over new 600 cases of occupational asthma are reported each year, with the total lifetime costs to society of this number of new cases put at between ¿71.7 to ¿100.1 million, or ¿3.4 to ¿4.8 million per year over the lifetime of the disease.

These "lifetime costs" - according to the researchers from the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), the University of Aberdeen and Metroeconomica Ltd - are incurred mainly by the individual and taxpayers.

They claimed that the largest cost burden falls on the individual worker - who incurs around 49% of total costs, followed closely by taxpayers - who incur about 47% of total costs. In contrast, employers of workers diagnosed with occupational asthma incur only 4% of total costs.

"There appears, therefore, to be little incentive for employers to reduce the incidence of new cases of occupational asthma in Great Britain, despite the fact that significant benefits would accrue to the rest of society," said the report.

Compensation claims?
Significantly however, the figures contained in the report do not include compensation paid to sick workers and associated legal costs, or the cost to insure against such potential liabilities.

A spokeswoman for Asthma UK told us that regardless of any questions over the financial burden faced by businesses as a result of occupational asthma, there were several good reasons why businesses should tackle the issue - in particular, being seen as a "good employer".

She said: "Each year over 3,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with occupational asthma and 12.7 million work days are lost annually. Legally, employers have a duty to protect their employees. Employers are required to report cases of occupational asthma to the Health and Safety Executive.

"In addition any person who develops asthma may be covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. The employer would then be required to make suitable adaptations to ensure that they are kept working without being exposed to any substance that may trigger an attack."

Asthma UK encourages employers to sign up to an occupational asthma 'charter', which includes ten basic steps for employers to follow to reduce asthma in the workplace.