TEHRAN — Work-related deaths in Iran decreased by 21 percent in the past Iranian calendar year (March 2015-March 2016) compared to the year before, Mehr news agency reported.

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According to a report released by the forensics, 1,494 workers died during performing work-related tasks last year, a decrease of 397 deaths year on year.

Of the total number of work-related deaths reported over the past year merely 15 were women, meanwhile the report states that in the year to March 2015, deaths amounted to 1,878 among men and only 13 among women.

The leading causes of worker deaths are falls as for the previous year 44 percent of the deaths were resulted from falling. In other words, 658 workers died of falling.

The report indicates that 322 workers died of striking by a hard object, 247 died of electrocution, 56 died of burns, 70 died of lack of oxygen and the remaining 141 died of other reasons.

Over this one-year period, provinces of Tehran with 290, Khorasan Razavi with 106, and Isfahan and Mazandaran each with 97 deaths set the records for the highest occupational fatalities.

On the other hand Zanjan with 10, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad and South Khorasan each with 11, and Semnan with 15 deaths are of the least number of work-related fatalities over the same period.

Additionally, the number of injuries caused during course of work also shows a fall of 8.4 percent. The number of the injured is 27,510, of which 26,267 were men and 1,243 were women.

MQ/MG