Deaths and work related occupational injuries detailed at the country, gender, and NACE Rev.2 sector levels from 2008 to 2019

Ensuring social data's reliability is essential in accurately evaluating social and economic impacts across geographical locations, economic sectors and stakeholder categories. Yet, the MRIO model utilized in our research (EXIOBASE) was hindered by out-of-date or significantly proxy fatality statistics, causing potential inaccuracies in our findings. We have comprehensively revised EXIOBASE fatality data to address this shortcoming, incorporating detailed, nation-specific, and up-to-date data. The update includes work-related fatal occupational injuries as well as fatalities associated with occupational exposure to a variety of 17 hazardous substances and conditions such as asbestos, arsenic, benzene, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, diesel engine exhaust, formaldehyde, nickel, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, silica, sulfuric acid, trichloroethylene, asthmagens, particulate matter, gases and fumes, noise and ergonomic factors. Our methodological process is built on three pillars: data acquisition, raw data processing, and computation of fatal injuries by country, gender, year, and EXIOBASE economic sector.

Data were sourced from the World Health Organization (WHO) (Pega et al., 2021) and Eurostat databases (Publications Office of the European Union, 2013). The WHO data was carefully screened based on specific criteria such as age above 15 years, gender, and fatal injuries only. Eurostat data provided granular information on work-related fatalities, classified by economic activities in the European Community (or NACE Rev.2 (Eurostat, 2008)). The WHO provided aggregate fatality data for 2010 and 2016. The strategy for allocating these deaths across Eurostat categories depended on the countries' geographical location, with different methods applied to European and non-European nations.

For European nations, fluctuations in fatality numbers within a NACE Rev.2 sector mirrored the changes registered by Eurostat. For non-European countries, fatality figures were proportionally allocated across economic sectors split according to the NACE Rev.2 classification, reflecting the workforce size associated with each economic sector. Due to the scarcity of data for nations within Asia, America, or Africa, we adopted a regional approach, computing fatality ratios over each NACE Rev.2 category for each region by integrating data for available countries over a reference year. For 2010 and 2016, the aggregate fatality figures for nations within these three zones were established. Due to the temporal proximity of both reference years, we postulated a linear trend in the fatality count between these two years. The number of fatalities for a specific country, year, and per NACE Rev.2 activity was then calculated by applying the previously mentioned fatality ratio to the total number of deaths for that nation. Last, we applied the European annual ratios to their total mortality figures for the few countries that could not be classified as European or belonging to one of the aforementioned zones.

The result is a comprehensive database that includes the number of fatalities (expressed in the number of deaths for work-related fatal occupational injuries and in Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), for fatalities associated with occupational exposure to a specific risk factor), detailed at the country, gender, and NACE Rev.2 sector levels from 2008 to 2019, providing insights into work-related fatal injuries across different health effects and geographical regions.

Nomenclature

Archives:

• Concordance_ISIC_Exiobase.xlsx : Concordance between the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC) and the exiobase sectors
• Concordance_ISO3_EXIO3.xlsx - Concordance between the ISO3 code and the Exiobase regions
• Workforce_by_ISO3.csv - Number of active persons per Country (ISO3 code), per Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE), Sex, Year (from 1991 to 2021)
• Workforce_by_EXIO3.csv - Number of active persons per Exiobase region (EXIO3 code), per Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community (NACE), Sex,  Year (from 1991 to 2021)
• Death_ISO3.csv - Number of death per Country (ISO3 code), Exiobase Sector, Sex, Estimate (point, lower, upper), Year (from 2009 to 2019)
• Death_EXIO3.csv - Number of death per Exiobase Region (EXIO3 code), Exiobase Sector, Sex, Estimate (point, lower, upper), Year (from 2009 to 2019)
• Injuries_ISO3.zip - Archive of DALY per Country (ISO3 code), Exiobase Sector, Sex, Estimate (point, lower, upper), Type of Exposure, Year (from 2009 to 2019)
• Injuries_EXIO3.zip - Archive of DALY per Exiobase Region (EXIO3 code), Exiobase Sector, Sex, Estimate (point, lower, upper), Type of Exposure, Year (from 2009 to 2019)
   

Content of Injuries_*.zip:

• arsenic_*.csv
• asbestos_*.csv
• asthmagens_*.csv
• benzene_*.csv
• beryllium_*.csv
• cadmium_*.csv
• chromium_*.csv
• diesel_*.csv
• ergonomic_*.csv
• formaldehyde_*.csv
• gases_*.csv
• nickel_*.csv
• noise_*.csv
• polycyclic_*.csv
• silica_*.csv
• sulfuric_*.csv
• trichloro_*.csv