Every year, approximately 100,000 Americans die from occupational illness a figure probably underestimated, since the link between job and disease is often unrecognized or unreported. Nevertheless, this is more than twice the number that die in motor vehicle accidents. There are approximately 390,000 new cases of occupational diseases annually, while 2.2 million workers are stricken by disabling injuries. Occupational exposure to toxic chemicals, and to the physical hazards of excessive radiation, noise, and vibration, can produce chronic lung disease, cancer, degenerative diseases to vital organs, birth defects, and genetic changes.
Some hazards can cause stillbirth, miscarriage, impaired fertility, or sterility.
These health effects are often linked to particular jobs. For example, workers involved in manufacturing the pesticide dibromochloropropane have an infertility rate two to three times that of the general population. It is difficult to estimate how much cancer is linked to the workplace perhaps as much as 20 percent of all cancers can be traced to occupational exposure. Of the more than 63,000 chemicals manufactured or used in American industry, approximately 160 could meet criteria for proven carcinogens. Among them are arsenic, asbestos, chromium, coal products, dusts, iron oxide, mustard gas, nickel, petroleum, and ionizing radiation.