CQUniversity has been leading Australia's involvement in a global project designed to establish whether the 'costs' of occupational health and safety (OHS) are in fact an economic benefit.

The global project organisers argue that prevention work follows legal and/or social requirements but also has a cost-benefit dimension.

Yvonne Toft and Geoff Dell are leading Australia's involvement in a global research project

They say the return on investment (or Return on Prevention) in OHS consists directly of the prevention of occupational accidents, diseases and health risks, and indirectly of secondary effects generating economic advantages for the company.

In partnership with Monash University's Institute of Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research, CQUniversity's Associate Professor Yvonne Toft and Associate Professor Geoff Dell recently headed to Germany to establish data collection methods.

The project is under the auspices of the International Social Security Association and German insurance agencies. It aims to draw up prevention balance sheets at a company level before consolidating data at an national and international scale.

Dr Toft said it was estimated that 4 per cent of the the world's gross domestic product was being lost due to occupational accidents and diseases.

She said data would be collected in 25 countries using a single research protocol to establish the ‘Return on Investment' of OHS globally.

Yvonne Toft and Geoff Dell with colleagues in Germany recently

"We will identify the costs and benefits of investments in OHS across the selected countries in order to identify to what extent businesses can benefit economically from the effects of their prevention work," Dr Toft said.

Projects results will be presented at the next World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, scheduled for September 2011 in Istanbul, Turkey.