Did hard work kill anyone?

In February 2004 the Australian Government released the discussion papers Australia¿s Demographic Challenges and A More Flexible and Adaptable Retirement Income System, which invited public submissions on proposals to encourage longer working lives. In Australia¿s Demographic Challenges the Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, announced policy initiatives aimed at increasing workforce participation to ensure future economic growth. These measures included encouraging people to delay retirement. The paper claimed that `paid work gives us the opportunity to develop personally, live independently, and interact socially¿ (Department of the Treasury, 2004b:7). In the same month the Australian Bureau of Statistics¿ (ABS) 2004 Year Book was released and it showed that in the past 20 years the average hours worked by employees had increased by three hours per week. The National Occupational Health and Safety Commission reported that the number of stressrelated workers¿ compensation claims had `substantially increased¿ over the past few years (Macken and Priest, 2004). The Government is promoting later retirement but is it possible that longer working lives could be detrimental to our health? In order to test whether there is any link between retirement age and age at death we have undertaken a study using data from a pension scheme for retired government employees.