The hidden toll of death in the workplace

Saturday was International Workers' Memorial Day, which commemorates the millions of people world wide who have been killed at work. I went along to the ceremony in Edinburgh at the memorial tree in Princes Street gardens - I can remember when as Council Leader some twenty years or so ago when we planted the tree, and there's been a ceremony there every year since.

The theme this year was the deaths caused by occupational cancer, and we also had a very powerful speech from Louise, whose brother had been electrocuted at work last year, just when he was 21, and only a few months before he was due to be married. It was an uncomfortable reminder of how many die at work, and how the vast majority of these deaths could easily have been prevented. We've got legislation on "Corporate Killing" going through Parliament at the moment, and although it's an important advance, events like this one today emphasise the need for that legislation to be strengthened further.

After that, I went down to the exhibition, organised by the "Edinburgh Language Academy" in North Junction Street, of artwork from children in Belarus and Ukraine, to raise funds for some of the work being done for the "children of Chernobyl". I remember being in the Ukraine a year or so after Chernobyl, and at the time the full extent of the disaster was something that was covered up by the authorities. In its own way, I suppose, the Cherobyl accident was also a work-related incident - and one of the reasons why I still think we should not be developing more nuclear power stations in Scotland and in the UK. Yes, I know that the technology at Chernobyl was poor, and the nuclear industry has changed since then - but ultimately, there is always the risk that if something goes wrong at a nuclear power plant, the consequences could be catastrophic, in a way which isn't true of any other type of power generation.