The Cost of Poor Workplace Safety - Using Existing Cameras to Spot Silent Losses

Poor safety shows up in the most annoying place first: your day-to-day operations. A single injury can wipe out working hours fast, then pile on admin time, investigations, retraining, and coverage shifts.

And the ripple keeps going. People come back on restricted duties, teams stretch to fill gaps, and the strain turns into fatigue, stress, and burnout. Those costs rarely land as one neat line item, but you feel them in delays, rework, overtime, and constant schedule churn.

Across the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, and the EU, the pattern is repeatable. In higher-risk sectors, recurring injuries, occupational illness, and job-linked mental strain behave like a steady drain on time and money.

In this article, we’ll quantify the national and EU-wide burden, show where harm concentrates by event type and sector, then connect those outcomes to lost working time and work-linked mental health impacts.
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Headline Stats at a Glance:

• Work injuries can add up fast. One widely cited estimate puts the total at $176.5 billion, showing how safety incidents can become a material cost line.
• Injury plus work-related ill health carries an estimated £22.9 billion burden, a reminder that health impacts sit alongside incident counts.
• Time loss remains part of the bill. 40.1 million working days were lost to work-related ill health and workplace injury in a single national estimate.
• Serious incidents remain common. 2.82 million non-fatal accidents led to 4+ days away from work, while 3,298 accidents proved fatal.
• Behind every metric sits a human cost. Fatal work injuries claimed 5,283 lives in one year.
• Mental health also shows up in productivity estimates. Depression and anxiety link to 12 billion working days lost each year, alongside an estimated US$1 trillion in lost productivity.

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Why workplace safety cost belongs on the board agenda

Boards already track cost lines that disrupt output, staffing, and delivery performance. Safety belongs in that same conversation because injuries and occupational illness create repeatable losses across people, operations, and finances.

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Global human burden

According to the International Labour Organization 2024 factsheet on EU–ILO collaboration to promote the right to a safe and healthy working environment (PDF), a single annual snapshot shows the scale of exposure:

• 2.93 million deaths per year linked to occupational accidents and diseases.
• At least 395 million workers injured at work per year.

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Macroeconomic burden in Europe and globally

Economic estimates also frame workplace harm as an economy-wide cost. The European Economic and Social Committee 2019 opinion on investments in occupational safety and health cites EU-OSHA estimates that:

• 3.9% of global GDP goes to dealing with occupational injuries and diseases.
• 3.3% of European GDP goes to dealing with occupational injuries and diseases.

Those percentages reflect earlier underlying data and provide a rough benchmark, not a 2024-specific point estimate.

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Structural cost burden across US, UK, Ireland and EU

National safety statistics put workplace harm into dollars, pounds, and days lost. Those measures sit above any single site, which makes them useful for leaders who need a consistent way to talk about risk across regions.

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United States national burden

NSC models translate work injuries into an annual cost estimate, then break that estimate into major cost categories.

According to the National Safety Council 2023 Work Injury Costs – Injury Facts, the total cost of work injuries in the United States in 2023 reached $176.5 billion.

• $53.1 billion in wage and productivity losses (2023).
• $36.8 billion in medical expenses (2023).
• $59.5 billion in administrative expenses (2023).
• $1,080 cost per worker (2023).
• $43,000 cost per medically consulted injury (2023).

Case counts from BLS show the size of the exposure base that sits underneath those cost estimates.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 TED article on fatal work injuries in 2023 reports 5,283 fatal work injuries in 2023 and a fatal work injury rate of 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time workers.

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2025 TED article on nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in 2023 reports 2.6 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses in private industry in 2023. The same release notes 946,500 cases involving days away from work and a 0.9 per 100 full-time workers rate for cases involving days away from work.

Great Britain and Ireland burden

HSE frames the Great Britain burden in both money and time away from work.

According to the Health and Safety Executive 2023/24 overview of health and safety at work statistics, Great Britain recorded the following totals in 2023/24:

• 1.9 million working people with work-related ill health.
• 680,000 workers injured at work.
• 40.1 million working days lost from work-related ill health and workplace injury.
• £22.9 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions.

Ireland’s national picture shows similar themes, with a mix of incident reporting, fatal outcomes, and workdays lost.

According to the Health and Safety Authority 2022–2023 Annual Review of Workplace Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities (PDF), Ireland recorded:

• 10,096 non-fatal injuries reported to the HSA in 2023, up from 9,092 in 2022

• 43 fatal work-related incidents in 2023, up from 38 fatal accidents recorded in 2022.

• 535,000 days lost due to work-related injuries in 2022 (CSO module).
• 1,140,000 days lost due to work-related illnesses in 2022 (CSO module).

A more recent HSA update shows the direction of travel for fatalities.

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EU accident exposure

EU-wide accident statistics show how large the underlying case counts are, even before any national cost model assigns a value to each case.

According to the Eurostat 2023 EU-27 accidents at work statistics, the EU-27 recorded:

• About 2.82 million non-fatal accidents at work causing at least four days’ absence in 2023.

• 3,298 fatal accidents at work in 2023.
• About 856 non-fatal accidents per fatal accident in 2023.

These totals set the baseline. The next section shows where harm clusters, because a small set of incident types and sectors drives a large share of serious cases.

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Cost concentration in specific events and sectors

Safety losses rarely spread evenly across event types. A small cluster of high-frequency causes drives a large share of serious cases, and that pattern repeats across regions. Prioritisation becomes clearer once leaders can see which events and environments create most of the exposure.

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United States patterns by event and sector

According to the National Safety Council 2025 Injury Facts: Top Work-related Injury Causes, detailed BLS nonfatal data for 2021–2022 shows a tight grouping of days away, restricted, or transferred (DART) cases around a few leading causes:

• Overexertion and bodily reaction: 1,001,440 DART cases (2021–2022).
• Contact with objects and equipment: 780,690 DART cases (2021–2022).
• Falls, slips, trips: 674,100 DART cases (2021–2022).
• Exposure to harmful substances or environments: 658,240 DART cases (2021–2022).
• NSC also states that exposure to harmful substances or environments, overexertion and bodily reaction, and slips, trips and falls together account for more than 75% of all nonfatal injuries and illnesses involving days away from work over 2021–2022.

Fatal injury data shows the same concentration effect.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 fatal occupational injuries table A-1, the United States recorded 5,283 fatal occupational injuries in 2023, with large counts in a small set of event groups:

• Transportation incidents: 1,942 (2023).
• Falls, slips, trips: 885 (2023).
• Exposure to harmful substances or environments: 820 (2023).
• Contact incidents: 779 (2023).‍
• Violent acts: 740 (2023).

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Industry patterns reinforce why this matters to logistics, warehousing, and industrial operations.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2023 fatal occupational injuries table A-9, transportation incidents in 2023 included:

• 820 fatalities in trade, transportation and utilities.
• 241 fatalities in natural resources and mining.
• 240 fatalities in construction.
• 80 fatalities in manufacturing.

European and Irish patterns in high-risk sectors

Eurostat reports that accident burden concentrates in a small set of sectors.

EU non-fatal accidents (2023, at least four days’ absence):

• Manufacturing: 18.5%.
• Construction: 12.9%.
• Distributive trades: 12.2%.
• Human health and social work activities: 12.1%.

EU fatal accidents (2023, sector shares):

• Construction: 24.0%.
• Transportation and storage: 16.4%.
• Manufacturing: 13.4%.
• Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 12.9%.

Eurostat also reports that construction, transportation and storage, manufacturing, and agriculture, forestry and fishing together accounted for 66.8% of all fatal accidents at work in the EU in 2023, and 44.8% of all non-fatal accidents at work.

Great Britain fatal injury statistics show a similar concentration in a small set of accident kinds.

According to the Health and Safety Executive 2025 Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain (PDF):

• Around 80% of fatal injuries were accounted for by five accident kinds (2024/25).
• On a five-year average for 2020/21–2024/25, 60% of worker fatalities were accounted for by three accident kinds: falls from a height, struck by a moving object, and struck by a moving vehicle.

• Over the same five-year period, falls from a height averaged 38 deaths per year, representing 28% of worker fatalities on that average.

HSA’s annual review also breaks down reported fatal incidents by sector in Ireland.

In the Health and Safety Authority 2022–2023 annual review, reported fatal incidents in 2023 included:

• Agriculture, forestry and fishing: 20.
• Construction: 10.
• Transportation and storage: 2.
• Manufacturing: 1.

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Implications for manufacturing, logistics, ports and warehousing

The event categories above can resemble common exposure points in industrial environments:

• Overexertion and bodily reaction can relate to manual handling on lines, order picking, pallet moves, container handling, and maintenance tasks.
• Contact with objects and equipment can relate to conveyors, moving machinery, forklifts, cranes, and stored goods.
• Slips, trips and falls can relate to housekeeping, surface conditions, edges, stairs, docks, and access points.
• Vehicle-related incidents can relate to yards, loading bays, docks, ports, and mixed pedestrian traffic.

Many of those scenarios occur in fixed fields of view. That can help teams compare “where the risk sits” in the external data with “where the work happens” on site.

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Hidden productivity and mental health drag

Direct medical spend and claims management sit on the surface. Productivity loss can extend beyond those direct costs, especially when teams need to maintain output while covering absences.

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Lost working time and cost components

HSE reports the Great Britain burden in both money and time away from work.

• 40.1 million working days lost in 2023/24 from work-related illness and workplace injury.
• £22.9 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions in 2023/24.

HSA also reports days-lost estimates for Ireland.

• 535,000 days lost due to work-related injuries in 2022 (CSO module), close to a five-year average of 534,160.
• 1,140,000 days lost due to work-related illness in 2022 (CSO module), compared with a five-year average of 994,660.

HSA’s annual review also highlights where absence-linked injury and illness rates were highest in Ireland.

Work-related injuries, 4+ days’ absence (rates per 1,000 workers, 2022):

• Construction and Public Administration and Defence: 18.4 per 1,000.
• Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing: 17.3 per 1,000.
• Male workers: 10.1 per 1,000.
• Female workers: 5.5 per 1,000.

Work-related illness, 4+ days’ absence (rates per 1,000 workers, 2022):

• Human Health and Social Work Activities: 52.4 per 1,000.
• Education: 28.0 per 1,000.
• Construction: 23.8 per 1,000.
• Female workers: 23.4 per 1,000.‍
• Male workers: 21.2 per 1,000.

NSC’s 2023 cost estimate also breaks totals into major categories.

• $53.1 billion in wage and productivity losses (2023).
• $36.8 billion in medical expenses (2023).
• $59.5 billion in administrative expenses (2023).

Those categories separate direct spend from broader productivity loss, while the site impact can vary by role mix and incident profile.

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Work-related mental health and presenteeism

According to the World Health Organization 2024 “Mental health at work” fact sheet:

• 12 billion working days are lost every year to depression and anxiety.
• Lost productivity linked to depression and anxiety is estimated at US$1 trillion per year.

These are global estimates for depression and anxiety and they are not limited to work-related causes.

WHO also states that poor working environments can pose a risk to mental health, including discrimination and inequality, excessive workloads, low job control, and job insecurity.

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Combined drag on operational resilience

Injuries and ill health reduce available working time. Mental health risks can also affect attendance and performance.

Leaders can treat these pressures as part of operational resilience, then size exposure using published unit values and local incident data before prioritising prevention where exposure concentrates.

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How safety leaders can reduce the cost of poor safety

The data above shows two consistent themes. Workplace harm carries a measurable cost, and serious outcomes cluster in a smaller set of event types.

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Quantify cost using published unit values

Published unit values can help translate incident counts into comparable cost estimates.

NSC lists a $43,000 cost per medically consulted injury in 2023, plus a $1,080 cost per worker.

HSE also publishes appraisal values that support costing and comparison.

According to the Health and Safety Executive 2023/24 “Appraisal values or ‘unit costs’” page (HSE, 2023/24), average costs to society per case are presented in £ (2024 prices):

• Fatal injury: £2,185,000 total cost per case.
• Non-fatal injury (all): £10,000 total cost per case.
• Non-fatal injury with 7 or more days’ absence: £44,300 total cost per case.
• Non-fatal injury with up to 6 days’ absence: £1,190 total cost per case.
• Work-related ill health (all): £24,200 total cost per case.
• Work-related ill health with 7 or more days’ absence: £49,500 total cost per case.‍
• Work-related ill health with up to 6 days’ absence: £1,250 total cost per case.

HSE also notes totals may not sum due to rounding and that estimates carry uncertainty.

OSHA also provides an estimator designed for awareness.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Safety Pays Program – Individual Injury Estimator (accessed 25 November 2025), the tool uses a company’s profit margin, average injury or illness costs, and an indirect cost multiplier to project total cost per injury and the sales needed to cover that cost. OSHA notes that the average claim cost estimates come from NCCI data for policy years 2015–2017.

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Where the biggest recurring exposure tends to sit

The NSC injury-cause breakdown and the BLS fatal event tables highlight a tight set of recurring patterns. Eurostat, HSE, and HSA sector profiles also show concentration in higher-risk sectors.

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Combining process, culture and technology, including AI computer vision

Controls that target the highest-impact event categories often look familiar.

• Traffic segregation and yard rules designed to reduce vehicle and pedestrian conflict.
• Manual handling redesign and mechanical aids designed to reduce overexertion.
• Housekeeping routines and walk-path management designed to reduce slips, trips, and falls.
• Permit, supervision, and equipment checks designed to manage risk in work at height and higher-energy tasks.

AI computer vision can support these controls in camera-rich environments because it can capture critical events in video and help teams spot trends.

Protex groups detections into named risk solutions:

• Vehicle Control
• Ergonomics
• Behavioural Safety
• Area Control
• Housekeeping
• PPE Detection

Protex AI provides a computer vision safety platform that prioritizes secure, on-premises video feed processing to protect data and preserve workforce privacy, while delivering safety insights for EHS and operations teams.

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Measure progress in terms leadership recognises

Metrics land better when they match the cost drivers already shown in the external data.

• Medically consulted injuries and lost-time injuries per year.
• Working days lost to work-related injury and work-related ill health.
• Frequency of leading event categories, including overexertion, contact with objects, slips, trips and falls, and exposure to harmful substances or environments.

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Turning safety losses into measurable costs

Poor workplace safety creates a predictable cost burden. The evidence across the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, and the EU points to the same story: recurring incidents and work-related ill health are linked to time loss and cost burdens that can compound across sites.

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What the evidence shows

• In the United States, NSC estimates put work injury costs at $176.5 billion in 2023, with large components in wage and productivity losses, medical expenses, and administration.
• In Great Britain, HSE estimates a £22.9 billion cost in 2023/24, alongside 40.1 million working days lost.
• NSC, BLS, Eurostat, HSE, and HSA data show concentration in a short list of event types and higher-risk sectors, which makes prioritisation practical.
• HSE and HSA days-lost measures, plus WHO mental health estimates, show a productivity drag that extends beyond visible medical spend and claims handling.

Those figures also show that workplace harm can show up in both safety metrics and operating results.

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Using existing cameras to surface risk earlier

Many of the high-frequency risks covered in this article can occur in camera-covered environments, including yards, loading bays, production lines, and warehouse aisles. 

Protex AI can use video feeds to help teams spot trends and act before risks escalate, so leaders can prioritise prevention work in higher-risk areas.

Teams that want a practical starting point can review the AI workplace safety platform, then see the warehouse AI safety solution for a common camera-rich setting. Leaders who want proof points can scan the Protex AI workplace safety case studies to see how teams apply computer vision insights inside real operations.

Taken together, the numbers across costs, days lost, and incident types point to a consistent pattern across regions. Workplace harm concentrates in a small set of event types, and the related time loss and cost burden can scale across multiple sites.

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References and data sources

• International Labour Organization (2023). Nearly 3 million people die of work-related accidents and diseases (news release).
• European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (2019). The value of occupational safety and health and the societal costs of work-related injuries and diseases (summary report).
• Eurostat (2024). Accidents at work statistics – 2023 data.
• National Safety Council (2025). Work Injury Costs – Injury Facts.
• National Safety Council (2025). Societal Costs of Unintentional Injuries – Injury Facts data table.
• National Safety Council (2024). Top Work-Related Injury Causes – Injury Facts
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024). Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities (IIF) – program overview and data access.
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024). Employer-Reported Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, 2023 (news release).
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2024). National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2023 (news release).
• Health and Safety Executive (2025). Key figures for Great Britain 2024 to 2025.
• Health and Safety Executive (2024). Costs to Great Britain of workplace injuries and new cases of work-related ill health 2023/24.
• Health and Safety Executive (2024). Appraisal values or “unit costs”.
• Health and Safety Executive (2025). Work-related fatal injuries in Great Britain, April 2024 to March 2025.
• Health and Safety Executive (2024). Health and safety at work: Summary statistics for Great Britain 2024.
• Health and Safety Authority (2024). Annual Review of Workplace Injuries, Illnesses and Fatalities 2022–2023.
• Health and Safety Authority (2025). Work-related fatalities rate in Ireland reaches record low in 2024 (press release).
• World Health Organization (2024). Mental health at work (fact sheet).
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (2024). OSHA’s $afety Pays Program – Individual Injury Estimator.