Emerging illness in workers

Emerging illness in workers is defined as those diseases that have emerged abruptly or in an unexpected way, have reemerged or increased rapidly its incidence in the geographical area in which they are presented. Following group of diseases are considered as emerging illness: 1.-Muscle-Skeletal diseases. 2.- Mental illness derived from labor stress. 3.- Infectious illness. 4.- Work related or aggravated asthma. 5.- Labor dermatosis. 6.- Cardiovascular disorders. 7.- Several: Cancer, vocal cord inflammation in teachers, intoxication due to new chemicals.    Previous diseases are product of the new health conditions at world level, the presence of information and robotic technology, sedentism, process automatization with masive layoffs and monotony, new chemicals, new biological risks and mutagenic effects, violence and labor stress. Regarding costs, it has been estimated that mortality due to emerging work illnesses, mainly osteomuscular and mental, would represent a productivity cost in Spain (potential working years lost) of between 577 and 1,035 million euros, considering expenses for medical services, workmen’s compensation and damaged equipment, interruption in the line of production, and severance payments. In the United States, around 600,000 workers become disabled because of disorders associated with stress, representing annual costs of 5 billion dollars.  In the cost quantification due to work related illness it is necessary to establish the total number of cases that present these diseases by age group, in order to obtain the total number of potential working years lost for each group of disease and for total diseases. Due to previous paragraphs, it is necessary to develop strategies that allow limit the exposure to risk factors that condition and determine the incidence of emerging illness in workers and its impact in the working years lost to design prevention and support strategies.