过劳死一词虽然诞生于日本，但早已成为全球各地的普遍现象。世界卫生组织和国际劳工组织联合开展的研究发现，2016年全球过劳者近5亿人，其中超74.5万人死于过劳引起的中风和心脏病。

　　Working long hours poses an occupational health risk that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year, the World Health Organization says.

　　世界卫生组织称，长时间工作带来的职业健康风险每年导致数十万人丧生。

　　People working 55 or more hours each week face an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease, compared to people following the widely accepted standard of working 35 to 40 hours in a week, the WHO says in a study that was published Monday in the journal Environment International.

　　世卫组织5月17日发表在《国际环境》期刊上的一项研究指出，相比每周工作常规的35到40小时的人，每周工作55小时以上的人患中风的风险高出35%，死于心脏病的风险高出17%。

　　"No job is worth the risk of stroke or heart disease," WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, calling on governments, businesses and workers to find ways to protect workers' health.

　　世卫组织总干事谭德塞表示：“没有哪份工作值得你冒着中风或心脏病的风险去做。”他呼吁政府、企业和工作人员设法保护员工健康。

　　The global study, which the WHO calls the first of its kind, found that in 2016, 488 million people were exposed to the risks of working long hours.

　　世卫组织表示，这是该领域首个全球研究，结果发现，2016年有4.88亿人暴露在长时间工作的风险下。

　　In all, more than 745,000 people died that year from overwork that resulted in stroke and heart disease, according to the WHO.

　　根据世卫组织的报告，2016年共有逾74.5万人死于过劳引起的中风和心脏病。

　　"Between 2000 and 2016, the number of deaths from heart disease due to working long hours increased by 42%, and from stroke by 19%," the WHO said as it announced the study, which it conducted with the International Labour Organization.

　　这项研究是由世卫组织和国际劳工组织联合开展的，世卫组织在宣布研究结果时表示：“2000年至2016年间，死于长时间工作导致的心脏病和中风的人数分别增加了42%和19%。”

　　The study doesn't cover the past year, in which the COVID-19 pandemic thrust national economies into crisis and reshaped how millions of people work. But its authors note that overwork has been on the rise for years due to phenomena such as the gig economy and telework — and they say the pandemic will likely accelerate those trends.

　　该研究没有覆盖过去一年的数据，因为新冠疫情让各国经济陷入了危机，并改变了数百万人的工作方式。但是研究作者指出，由于零工经济和远程办公等现象的出现，这些年来过劳问题愈演愈烈，疫情很可能加剧了这一趋势。

　　"Teleworking has become the norm in many industries, often blurring the boundaries between home and work," Ghebreyesus said. "In addition, many businesses have been forced to scale back or shut down operations to save money, and people who are still on the payroll end up working longer hours."

　　谭德塞表示：“远程办公已经成为很多行业的常规做法，而且通常会模糊家和工作之间的界限。此外，许多企业已被迫缩减人员规模或停业来省钱，结果在职员工的工作时间更长了。”

　　Also, recessions like the one the world has seen in the past year are commonly followed by a rise in working hours, the researchers said.

　　研究人员称，伴随过去一年的这种全球性经济衰退而来的往往是工作时间的延长。

　　The study found the highest health burdens from overwork in men and in workers who are middle-age or older. Regionally, people in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific region had the most exposure to the risk. People in Europe had the lowest exposure.

　　研究发现，男性和中年以上员工过劳带来的健康负担最重。从地域来看，东南亚和西太平洋地区员工的过劳比例最大，而欧洲员工的过劳比例最小。

　　In the US, less than 5% of the population is exposed to long work hours, according to a map the WHO published with the study. That proportion is similar to Brazil and Canada — and much lower than Mexico and in countries across most of Central and South America.

　　世卫组织在研究报告中发布的地图显示，在美国，不到5%的人工作时间过长。巴西和加拿大也有类似的过劳比例，远低于墨西哥和中南美大部分地区的国家。

　　Several steps could help ease the burden on workers, the study states, including governments adopting and enforcing labor standards on working time.

　　该研究提出了几个有助于减轻员工负担的措施，包括政府采纳和实施劳动时间标准。

　　The authors also say employers should be more flexible in scheduling, and to agree with their employees on a maximum number of working hours. In another step, the study suggests workers arrange to share hours so no one is working 55 or more hours in a week.

　　研究作者还指出，雇主应该灵活安排工作日程，并和员工就劳动时间上限达成一致。该研究还建议员工平摊工作时间，确保大家每周工作时间都不超过55个小时。

　　To compile the report, researchers reviewed and analyzed dozens of studies on heart disease and stroke. They then estimated workers' health risks based on data drawn from a number of sources, including more than 2,300 surveys on working hours that were conducted in 154 countries from the 1970s through 2018.

　　为了编纂这一报告，研究人员回顾和分析了数十项关于心脏病和中风的研究。他们还基于多个来源提取的数据来估算员工的健康风险，这些来源包括20世纪70年代到2018年间在154个国家开展的2300多项关于劳动时间的调查。

　　英文来源：美国国家公共电台

（责任编辑：尚宏）