Covid-19: statutory means of scrutinizing workers’ deaths and disease

Abstract

Background By law, covid-19 disease and deaths in workers may lead to coroners’ inquests and/or Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigations. Aims This study assesses the adequacy of these statutory means to yield recommendations for prevention of acquiring covid-19 infection from work. Methods Covid-19 guidance from the chief coroner and the HSE was appraised, including using Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. Practitioners were asked to estimate the likelihood that covid-19 disease may have arisen from ‘near-miss’ scenarios. Data from the judiciary and the HSE were analysed. Results The coroners’ guidance allowed a wider range of reports of death than did the HSE and conformed better with ONS data on covid-19 mortality by occupation. In the practitioner survey, 62 respondents considered a higher likelihood that reported covid-19 cases would have arisen from the scenario deemed unreportable as a ‘dangerous occurrence’ by HSE than the reportable scenario (P < 0.001). On average there was only one coroner’s report to prevent future death from occupational disease every year in England and Wales. The HSE dealt with a yearly average of 1611 reports of work-related disease including 104 on biological agents, but has received about 9000 covid-19 reports. Conclusions Current HSE guidance for reporting work-related covid-19 may miss many thousands of cases and needs further iteration. Coroners have very limited experience of inquiry into occupational disease caused by biological agents compared with the HSE. Concerns regarding national policy such as on protective equipment warrant a full public inquiry.

Occupational differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection: analysis of the UK ONS COVID-19 infection survey

“…The need to protect workers from COVID-19 is a persistent issue with debate around the degree to which SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs in the workplace and which occupations are most affected, with calls for COVID-19 to be classified as an occupational disease. 1 2 It is important that we better understand occupational risks in order to inform policy and practice. COVID-19 disease in the workplace will be a consequence of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus; workplace factors known to be related to exposure include ventilation, ability to social distance and number of daily contacts.…”

“…The need to protect workers from COVID-19 is a persistent issue with debate around the degree to which SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs in the workplace and which occupations are most affected, with calls for COVID-19 to be classified as an occupational disease 1 2. It is important that we better understand occupational risks in order to inform policy and practice.…”

Occupational differences in SARS-CoV-2 infection: Analysis of the UK ONS Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey

“…Results of Cox regression for 13 categories of essential worker compared to non-essential workers. Time to first infection adjusted for (1) age and sex (2) age, sex, IMD, ethnic group, region (3) age, sex, IMD, ethnic group, region, household size, rural or urban location, health conditions. Model uses 3772517 observations from 312 304 participants.…”

“…The need to protect workers from COVID-19 is an ongoing issue and is likely to be so for some time. There is much debate around the degree to which SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs in the workplace and which occupations are most affected, with calls for COVID-19and subsequent long term symptoms and disability (long-COVID) to be classified as an occupational disease (1, 2). Hence, it is important that we better understand occupational risks in order to inform policy and practice.…”

The Development of a COVID-19 Control Measures Risk Matrix for Occupational Hygiene Protective Measures

“…ONS articulated the limitations of the analyses they undertook, and these have been recognized by the Working Group. In the mortality data, these limitations include numerator bias, such as from deaths which were reported to the coroner because of suspicion of occupational causation but not yet registered or analysed by the ONS ( Agius, 2020a ). Moreover, important determinants of mortality such as socio-economic status and comorbidity were not taken into account ( ONS, 2021 ).…”