The three major causes of worker deaths are cancer, accidental injury and heart disease, while the construction, fishing and agricultural industries have the highest mortality rates, a new study by the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health found.
The study found that cancer ranked first among the causes of death for both the overall population and the working population, while the second most common cause of death for workers was accidental injury, but for the general public it was heart disease.
Liver cancer, lung cancer and oral cancer were among most common, in that order. Liver and lung cancer mostly afflict workers in the construction and fishing industries, while oral cancer, which can be caused by chewing betel nuts, appears mostly in the transportation and construction sectors.
Many workers in these isectors are required to work long hours and use betel nuts or cigarettes to help them stay awake, the study said. In addition, many workers in the sectors have habits that could cause lung or liver cancer, such as drinking alcohol, smoking and staying up late at night or sleeping too little.
The study also shows that women who work in shifts and therefore suffer from interrupted sleeping patterns are at risk of low levels of urinary melatonin, which can contribute to high rates of breast cancer.
To lower the risk of breast cancer and other diseases that might be caused by irregular sleeping patterns, the study recommended employers minimize the adverse effects of 24-hour shifts by doing more to educate employees about improving sleep quality.
When compared across age groups, the most common cause of death in workers aged 20 to 34 was accidental injury, while cancer took the lead in all age groups over 35.
Although the major causes of death for workers was basically unchanged from 2007 to 2008, the mortality rate dropped.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater