Working long hours is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has said.
In the first global study of the loss of life associated with longer working hours, the paper in Environment International showed that 745,000 people died from stroke and heart disease associated with long working hours in 2016. "We should note that we observe upwards trends in both the exposure and also the burden of disease between 2000 and 2016. "So, for example the number of deaths from heart disease have increased by an estimated 42% in that 16 years period and for stroke, by 19%", WHO technical officer Frank Pega said.