Concerning the state of occupational safety and health at work, European figures show that:

• 47% work in painful or tiring conditions
• 57% reported repetitive movements
• 37% are handling heavy loads
• 27% consider that their safety and health is at risk at work, and
• 60% think that their work affects their health.

The report also summarizes a survey of consumers' attitudes towards 'Corporate Social Responsibility'. The survey found protecting the safety and health of workers to be the most important area of corporate responsibility, coming above human rights, job security, and protection of the environment. Up to 70% of those surveyed reported that they were prepared to 'discriminate' against products which did not carry out this type of protection. 50% would consider paying higher prices.

Conclusions and further points of discussion included providing more OSH knowledge in the professional training of architects, engineers, and business scholars in the hopes of avoiding problems at the source. Also recognized was a need for better, simpler and more practical legislation concerning safety and health at work.

The entire report is available as a .pdf download from the OSHA EU at http://agency.osha.eu.int/publications/forum/forum1/forum1_en.pdf.