In 2015, 2% of the total burden in Australia was due to occupational exposures & hazards.
These estimates reflect the amount of burden that could have been avoided if all people in Australia were not exposed to occupational exposures & hazards including injuries, loud noise, carcinogens, particulate matter, gas and fumes, asthmagens and ergonomic factors.
Occupational exposures & hazards was linked to 29 diseases and injuries including 10 types of cancer, 15 types of injury, hearing loss, back pain & problems, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pneumoconiosis (Table 1).
Occupational exposure or hazard |
Linked disease |
Injury |
Drowning, falls, fire, burns and scalds, homicide and violence, road traffic injuries—motor vehicle occupants, road traffic injuries—motorcyclists, other unintentional injuries, other land transport injuries, other road traffic injuries |
Benzene or formaldehyde |
Acute myeloid leukaemia, Chronic myeloid leukaemia, Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, Other leukaemias, nasopharyngeal cancer |
Noise |
Hearing loss |
Arsenic, beryllium, cadmium chromium, diesel engine exhaust, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nickel, second-hand smoke, silica |
Lung cancer |
Sulfuric acid |
Laryngeal cancer |
Trichloroethylene |
Kidney cancer |
Particulate matter, gas and fumes |
COPD |
Asbestos |
Laryngeal cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, mesothelioma |
Asbestos, silica and particulate matter |
Pneumoconiosis |
Asthmagens |
Asthma |
Ergonomic factors |
Back pain & problems |
How much burden was attributable to occupational exposures and hazards?
Occupational exposures & hazards were responsible for the entire burden from pneumoconiosis, 63% of mesothelioma burden, 17% of back pain & problems burden, 9% of asthma burden and 8% each of lung cancer and road traffic injuries of motor vehicle occupants burden. Occupational exposures & hazards contributed to less than 10% of the burden for other linked diseases (see Supplementary tables).
Note that the following visualisation displays the top 10 linked diseases due to occupational exposures & hazards.