A/HRC/39/48 I. Introduction 1. Everyone has the right to just and favourable conditions of work. 1 Every worker has a right to dignity, to be treated ethically, with respect and without being subjected to conditions of work that are dehumanizing or degrading. States have undertaken an ambitious goal under the Sustainable Development Goals: to ensure decent work for all by 2030.2 2. Despite clear obligations relating to the protection of workers’ health, workers around the world find themselves in the midst of a public health crisis due to their exposures to hazardous substances at work. While the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and others have called for action on this public health crisis for decades, the global problem of workers’ exposure to hazardous substances remains poorly addressed. 3. It is estimated that one worker dies every 15 seconds from toxic exposures at work, 3 while over 2,780,000 workers globally die from unsafe or unhealthy conditions of work each year. 4 Occupational diseases account for 2.4 million (over 86 per cent) of total premature deaths.5 An “occupational disease” is any disease contracted primarily as a result of an exposure to risk factors arising from work activity, including chronic exposure to toxic industrial chemicals, pesticides or other agricultural chemicals, radiation and dust, among other hazards. 6 Approximately 160 million cases of occupational disease are reported annually.7 Inaction by States and businesses on this global public health crisis is estimated to cost nearly 4 per cent of global gross domestic product, or virtually $3 trillion.8 4. Cancers account for over 70 per cent of occupational diseases globally and are estimated to cause the deaths of at least 315,000 persons annually; 9 5.3–8.4 per cent of all cancers, and 17–29 per cent of deaths from lung cancer among men, are attributed to occupational exposure to toxic substances. 10 Almost all such cancers can be prevented. 11 More than 200 different known factors, including toxic chemicals and radiation, have been identified to date as known or probable human carcinogens, and workers are exposed to many of these in the course of their jobs.12 5. Debilitating and fatal lung diseases, neurological disabilities and reproductive impairments such as infertility and inability to carry a pregnancy to term are among various other health impacts that plague workers exposed to toxic substances. Occupational exposures result in 12 per cent of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and it 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art. 23. See ILO, “Decent work and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, 2 November 2017. United Nations human rights mechanisms define “decent work” as “work that respects the fundamental rights of the human person as well as the rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration”. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 18 (2005) on the right to work. Päivi Hämäläinen, Jukka Takala and Tan Boon Kiat, Global Estimates of Occupational Injuries and Work-related Illnesses 2017 (Singapore, Workplace Safety and Health Institute). Ibid. Ibid. WHO, “Occupational and work-related diseases” (n.d.). International Trade Union Confederation, Toxic Work: Stop Deadly Exposures Today!, 13 April 2015. Gerry Eijkemans, “The importance of workers’ health to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda”, Occupational & Environmental Medicine, vol. 75, Supp. 2 (April 2018); ILO, “Global action needed to tackle rising work-related injuries and diseases, ILO says”, 7 September 2017. ILO, Promoting Decent Work in the Chemical Industry: Innovative Initiatives (Geneva, 2013), p. 20. Jukka Takala and others, “Eliminating occupational cancer in Europe and globally”, OSHWiki, 30 May 2017. Ibid. WHO, International Agency for Research on Cancer, “IARC monographs on the evaluation of carcinogenic risks to humans”, 29 June 2018. Available at https://monographs.iarc.fr/agentsclassified-by-the-iarc/. 3