EU-OSHA, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work based in Bilbao, Spain, has published a new set of resources on cardiovascular health in the workplace. The publications map out existing regulations, policies and initiatives designed to help prevent cardiovascular disease and to support workers returning to and remaining in work.
Why cardiovascular disease at work?
According to EU-OSHA, cardiovascular disease is responsible for 1.71 million deaths per year in the European Union. The agency also identifies it as the second most common cause of work-related deaths, making cardiovascular conditions one of the most serious health risks linked to work.
For this reason, EU-OSHA wants to raise awareness of the regulations, strategies and initiatives that already exist across Europe to prevent these conditions. The agency also aims to show how workers with a cardiovascular condition can successfully return to work and remain in employment.
What are the new resources?
At the heart of the publication series is a 70-page report titled “Work-related cardiovascular disease prevention: regulations, policies, strategies and initiatives”, accompanied by an 8-page summary. EU-OSHA has also published a 6-page policy brief on prevention, return to work and job retention for workers with cardiovascular conditions.
The series also includes five practical case studies from EU countries: health checks for farmers, Austria’s Fit2work programme supporting return to work after illness, an accreditation scheme for workplace health promotion, support for small businesses in Slovenia, and Dutch guidelines on prevention and return to work. EU-OSHA has also launched a new thematic section on its website covering workplace risk factors and EU policy in this area.
What does this mean for prevention policy?
With this series, EU-OSHA firmly places cardiovascular health on the agenda of European occupational safety policy. The case studies show that member states use a wide range of tools, from workplace health checks to accreditation schemes and support for reintegration. The overview gives policymakers and employers examples they can compare and, where appropriate, adopt.
Context
A joint study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) from 2021, published in the journal Environment International, calculated that long working weeks of 55 hours or more were responsible worldwide for 745,000 deaths from stroke (398,000) and ischaemic heart disease (347,000) in 2016, a 29 percent increase compared with 2000. Working 55 hours or more per week was associated with an estimated 35 percent higher risk of stroke and a 17 percent higher risk of ischaemic heart disease, compared with a working week of 35 to 40 hours. The majority of these deaths, 72 percent, involved men.
For HSE professionals worldwide, these publications underline that cardiovascular health can no longer be treated as a purely individual or medical risk, but as an occupational risk that belongs just as structurally in risk assessments as physical safety. Factors such as long working hours deserve explicit attention in this regard. EU-OSHA’s overview, together with the WHO/ILO evidence on working hours as a risk factor, gives HSE professionals a starting point for putting this issue on the agenda in their organisation, regardless of the regulations in their own country.
Source: The heart of the matter: new resources on cardiovascular health at work, 15 October 2026
Additional research: WHO/ILO: Long working hours increasing deaths from heart disease and stroke
