The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have published their annual statistics for the year 2006/2007.
The HSE have announced that there were 2.2 million reported cases of people suffering from an illness which the individual believed was caused or worsened by their current or past work.
Around 75% of these self-reported cases were musculoskeletal disorders such as upper limb or back problems, or stress, depression or anxiety.
A total of 36 million working days were lost overall and of those 30 million days were reported as being lost due to work-related ill health and 6 million due to workplace injury.
Figures produced over the last three years show that an average of just over 6,300 cases were assessed for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit. A large proportion of the cases assessed fall into the categories of vibration white finger, carpal tunnel syndrome and respiratory diseases.
Each year thousands of people die from work related diseases, mainly due to exposures suffered many years ago. For example, Mesothelioma deaths reflect industrial conditions of decades ago.
In 2005, a total of 2,037 people died from Mesothelioma. For further information visit the section of our website on Industrial Diseases.
For more information on the HSE's Health and Safety Statistics visit www.hse.gov.uk/statistics.