Hanoi (VNA) - Diagnoses of occupational diseases are onthe rise in Vietnam and several new occupations have been found to causerespiratory diseases and deafness, according to the Ministry of Labour,Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

Some 157,000 labourers in 42 localities had occupational diseasesby the end of last year. Occupational deafness was detected in 64.4 percent ofthe labourers, followed by silicosis (10.2 percent), and occupational chronicbronchitis (5.1 percent).

Reports from 57 localities who medically examined 1.2 millionlabourers showed high percentages of respiratory diseases (25.6 percent of thetotal number of patients), digestive diseases (16 percent), and musculoskeletaldiseases (8.3 percent).

38-year-old Nguyen Ngoc Bao in Bien Hoa city recently lost 11 percentof his hearing after 20 years working at a steel production company in the BienHoa 2 Industrial Park.

Despite having tinnitus prior to discovering the illness, Baothought it was not serious and continued working.

Bao’s illness could have been detected earlier if he had got anannual health check, said doctor Nguyen Thi Thu Sang, head of the OccupationDisease Department at the Dong Nai Centre for Occupational Health andEnvironment Protection.

Most workers do not get health checks until their illness isserious because they are not aware of the risks of the occupational diseasesthey face, according to Sang.

Some are willing to take their chances in exchange for high salaryand good benefits.

It is difficult for medical units to conduct periodical healthchecks on factory workers if their employers are not willing to help, accordingto Sang.

“Factories and enterprises are not paying enough attention to worksafety and haven’t enforced the use of work safety equipment such as earplugsand masks,” she said.

Some enterprises chose to take their employees to cheap medicalfacilities instead of those equipped with modern equipment and skilled staff,which reduces the quality of health checks, she said.

Survey results from the HCM City Public Health Institute on 1,000tailoring factory workers show that 93 percent feel exhausted after work, 47 percenthave experienced body fatigue, 15 percent are burnt out, and some 80 percenthave musculoskeletal pains.

However, less than 10 percent of workers who were surveyed hadreceived healthcare, the results show.

Representatives from the Ministry of Health (MoH) said not enoughattention had been paid to ensuring work safety and providing healthcare forlabourers.

Limited awareness of both employers and labourers of work safetyand hygiene, as well as limited financial resources, are some reasons for poorprevention of the diseases, the MoH said.

Some 2.3 million work-related deaths occur worldwide every year,two million of which are caused by occupational diseases, according tostatistics from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Occupational diseases haven’t caught as much public attention aslabour accidents although they cause six times as many deaths, according to theILO.

The organisation called for an “urgent and strong” global campaignto prevent the rise of occupational diseases last month. -VNA