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Contents
What is the News?
According to a report by Lancet, most of the pollution-related workplace deaths occur in countries with the highest GDP.
Relation between Workplace and pollution related deaths
Most of the 10 countries with the highest gross domestic product(GDP) recorded the highest number of mortalities at workplaces triggered by pollution.
In contrast, most of these countries had a low proportion of pollution deaths in the overall population: 90% of pollution-related deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries.
This underscores the disparity in which these places treat pollution within the four walls of workplaces and outside.
Countries with Highest Pollution Related Workplaces Deaths
Workplace-related premature deaths due to pollution were the highest in the United Kingdom (UK) among the top-10 GDP countries (Though overall the UK occupied the fourth-worst position among nearly 200 countries).
The United States — the world’s biggest economy — ranked 18th overall and 12th among countries with over 10 million people.
India, the sixth-largest economy, ranked 21st on this list with 12.15 pollution-related occupational deaths every 100,000 workers. Overall, India occupied the 40th position globally.
Note: India ranked 13th in terms of pollution-triggered deaths within the overall population with 169.5 mortalities per 100,000 people.
What is the significance of this report?
The disparity in pollution triggered death figures within working places compared to the overall population denotes that workers in these so-called rich countries stand equally vulnerable as the workers, say in India and Bangladesh.
This also denotes that the industry owners generally compromise on environmental issues to maximize profit.
Source: The post is based on the article “Most pollution-related workplace deaths in countries with highest GDP: Lancet report” published in PIB on 30th May 2022.
