Occupational Injuries

The number of occupational injuries in all workplaces in 2004 stood at 44 025, an increase of 4.8 per cent over 2003, while the injury rate per 1 000 employees increased slightly from 17.7 to 18.1, or 2.6 per cent. However, compared with 2002, the number of occupational injuries fell by 6.4 per cent and the injury rate dropped by 5.7 per cent.

Accidents in the Construction Industry

The safety performance of the high-risk construction industry continued to improve, although it still had the highest number of fatalities and accident rate among all industries. The number of industrial accidents in the construction industry decreased from 4 367 in 2003 to 3 833 in 2004, down by 12.2 per cent. The accident rate per 1 000 workers dropped from 68.1 in 2003 to 60.3 in 2004, a decrease of 11.4 per cent. Compared with 2002, the number of accidents showed a hefty drop of 38.6 per cent while the injury rate went down by 29.2 per cent.

Occupational Diseases

In 2004, a total of 251 occupational disease cases were confirmed, representing a 2.7 per cent fall from 2003. The most common occupational diseases were silicosis, occupational deafness, tenosynovitis of hand and forearm and tuberculosis.