The silent epidemic
Mar 10th, 2007 by francis
Something has been discovered in many offices and factories. Perhaps it’s in the paint. Maybe it’s emitted by laser printers, or is caused by fluorescent lighting, or air-conditioning units.
There’s a direct link between exposure to this and ill-health. It makes those exposed to it twice as likely to die from heart disease, and almost twice as likely to develop type two diabetes, as those who are not. Seventeen per cent of those exposed to it will have to see a doctor. Side effects can include aggressive behaviour, problems with sleep and sexual function, and depression.
The European Union has estimated that it affects at least 40 million workers in its 15 Member States and that the results costs the European Union at least €20 billion annually.
If this was something seeping from the aircon or out-gassing from the insulation in the walls, many workplaces would be immediately closed down on health and safety grounds. But that’s not going to happen. Because this is not a chemical, it is stress and overwork.
And it kills people. If anything else was killing people on this scale, it would be a matter of national scandal. But hey ho, because it’s something that many people have learned to expect as normal, as part of twenty-first century life as ipods and reality TV, it just goes on.
And as a result, people die. People have breakdowns, made mentally ill by their workplace. And many, many more people just wake every morning to yet another day of quiet, claustrophobic, crushing despair.
You can often hear the government or employers talking about the need for committed workforce, for a work ethic. It seems to me that it’s the opposite that’s needed: more recognition of the damage that is done to people, more recognition of the desperate need to redress the balance and give people their lives back. In short, a sloth ethic.